Do covers influence the capture efficiency of pitfall traps?

Abstract

Pitfall traps are widely used in terrestrial ecology to capture ground-dwelling arthropods. In order to determine the effect of covers placed over pitfall traps on their efficiency at capturing of spiders, carabid beetles and ants, four types of pitfall trap were sunk into the ground at dry grassland sites: three pitfall traps were not covered, three were covered with white, three with green and three with black plastic covers. The total catch was 9,364 spiders, 4,352 carabid beetles and 4,157 ants. The distribution of species of spiders and carabid beetles, and the total catch of spiders, carabid beetles and ants did not differ significantly among the four types of trap. Therefore, covers do not appear to affect the capture efficiency of pitfall traps.

Keywords

• araneae
• carabidae
• formicidae
• invertebrate sampling
• methodology