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Relative Efficiency of Pitfall vs. Bait Trapping for Capturing Taxonomic and Functional Diversities of Ant Assemblages in Temperate Heathlands

Authors :
Axel Hacala
Clément Gouraud
Wouter Dekoninck
Julien Pétillon
Source :
Insects, Vol 12, Iss 4, p 307 (2021)
Publication Year :
2021
Publisher :
MDPI AG, 2021.

Abstract

Whereas bait and pitfall trappings are two of the most commonly used techniques for sampling ant assemblages, they have not been properly compared in temperate open habitats. In this study, taking advantage of a large-scale project of heathland restoration (three sites along the French Atlantic Coast forming a north-south gradient), we evaluated the relative efficiency of these two methods for assessing both taxonomic and functional diversities of ants. Ants were collected and identified to species level, and six traits related to morphology, behavior (diet, dispersal and maximum foraging distance), and social life (colony size and dominance type) were attributed to all 23 species. Both observed and estimated species richness were significantly higher in pitfalls compared to spatially pair-matched bait traps. Functional richness followed the same pattern, with consistent results for both community weighted mean (CWM) and Rao’s quadratic entropy. Taxonomic and functional diversities from pitfall assemblages increased from north to south locations, following a pattern frequently reported at larger spatial scales. Bait trapping can hardly be considered a complementary method to pitfall trapping for sampling ants in open temperate habitats, as it appears basically redundant with the latter sampling method, at least in coastal heathlands of the East-Atlantic coast.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
20754450
Volume :
12
Issue :
4
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
Insects
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.21711c3e3fc54f52befc56e31d28ff22
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3390/insects12040307