11/25/2023 0 Comments Pitfall traps arthropodsPhysical lay-out of the habitat could have an effect on movement and consequently capture of the species as ground displacement and multiple bends or twists in pathways could determine capture (Crist & Wiens, 1995) by affecting speed of movement (Greenslade, 1964). An increase in temperatures during the diurnal time may result in increased movement of species and possibly increase in probability of capture than during the night. Change in behaviour of the species may attribute to the type of species collected due to changes in micro-climate (Honek, 1988) and physical lay-out of habitat (Greensalde, 1964). The size of the trap was also a limiting factor as some larger arthropods which include locusts noted when setting the traps in the grassland and cockroaches expected under trees as they feed on decaying matter were not captured. However, biases do arise with the use of this method as Digweed et al., (1995) and Schmidt et al., (2006) argued that factors such as trap material, shape, preservative used and the placement of the trap could influence the abundance of species collected. This consists of open sampling containers with a liquid preservative sunk into the ground (Barber, 1931) posing a few advantages which are: it is easy to use inexpensive and allows a 24 hour operation (Clark & Blom, 1992). The pitfall trap method has often been used to capture ground dwelling arthropods. The study of the species diversity requires the use of suitable sampling methods which ensure cost effectiveness, suitability of habitat conditions of the target species as well as underlying biases of the method (Southwood, 1994 Gullan & Cranston, 2005). Species diversity is the numerical measure of heterogeneity and distribution of species in a specific area from the species richness and species abundance (Lloyd & Gherlardi, 1964 Pielou, 1966). The pitfall trap method could be effectively used to capture all arthropods intended although limitations included: variation in habitat structure, seasonal and daily activity patterns, behaviour as well as size of target species. Evenness was high in the grasslands in comparison to all the other habitats which was attributed to the sampling area being larger than all the others which increased chances of capturing different arthropods equally. The ant mound showed the highest species richness due to abundance of resources and the grassland had the least due to limitation of resources in the open area although all the habitats had high species diversity. The pitfall trap method was used whereby a ground borer was used to dig a hole into the ground, placing a sampling container with ethanol as the preservative and leaving open for two days. ![]() The experimental procedure was carried out to determine the arthropod species diversity in three habitats, the grassland ant mounds and under trees. ![]() Species diversity is one of the essential components of ecosystem studies and it determination would require a suitable sampling technique according to the habitat and target species.
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