INSECT DIVERSITY

Project Report Reshma Soman IMS10046 Group members Reshma Soman Sivaramakrishnan.S Sanjay Kumar Meena

CONTENTS

1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6)

INTRODUCTION AIM PROCEDURE ANALYSIS CONCLUSION DRAWBACKS

Introduction
Our project involves sampling the diversity of insects using various methods and comparing which method serves to be more useful for quantitative sampling of insect species. The methods we are going to use to study the diversity of insects are:1) Pitfall trap 2) Pan trap 3) Baited trap 1) Pitfall Trap:Pitfall traps consist of a container (tin, jar or drum) buried in the ground with its rim at surface level used to trap mobile animals that fall into it. The fluid going to used in this trap is Methyl Parathion. 2) Pan Trap:The pan Trap Consists of small coloured pan or bowl filled with soapy water to catch the insects. 3) Baited Trap:It is same that of Pitfall Trap, Here we use Bait(some substance) to attract the insects instead of Alcohol. Field and weather

Should not be disturbed by human or any animal. Vegetative environment is essential for better results. Humidity climate gives positive results in the experiment. Pollution free environment also gives positive results . (smoke, charcoal)

AIM Our aim is to study which methodology is adequate for sampling insects and differentiating habitats on the basis of insect species distribution

PROCEDURE We prepare the traps, and then we placed the traps where it seems to have favourable conditions for our aim. We collected the samples at various times or various conditions and we preserved the specimens for Data recording and Analysis. In data recording, we recorded the plot, Site and quadrate, information on the order, family, serial number, number of nymphs or larvae and the number of adults which were observed and trapped with the above said methods. In data analysis, we tried to understand the distribution of species of insects over a particular place with varying conditions. From above data analysis, we concluded about the Insect species diversity within our local area.

Pan Trap The most commonly deployed recent protocol is the use of colored pan traps (bowls) filled with soapy water. Insects approach the bowls, land on the water, and drown. The method is particularly good at catching numerous species of bees, but can also be effective for capturing various flower-visiting flies and skippers. Pit fall Pit fall trap consists of 1-2 litre plastic jar with an opening of 9 cm which is buried The insects trapped in pit fall are preserved in 70% alcohol, at ground level and observed for 3-4 days. Each jar consists of 50 ml of soap water.

Baited Traps A plastic jar of 2.5 litre capacity was used to fabricate a scented trap. The trap was baited with 200 ml saturated jaggery

(unrefined cane sugar ) and Pineapple essence.The scented traps were also set between 1500 -1700 hrs and collected insects were filtered, washed and preserved in 70% alcohol.

Collected insects were stored in 70% alcohol

DATA COLLECTION Samples From Traps Trial 1 Baited Trap:Butterflies-3 Fruitflies-9 Wasps-4 Wingless Cockroach-5 Pitfall Trap:Mantis-6 Wingless Cockroach-10 Spiders-2 Pan Trap:Trial 2 Baited Trap:Fruit flies-6 Wasps-4 Wingless Cockroach-1 Pitfall trap:-

Wasps-2 Fireflies-1 Fruit flies-5 Mantis-4 ButterFlies-3 Mantis-10 Spiders-2 Fruitflies-14 WinglessCockroach-15 Wasps-6 Fireflies-1 Total Individuals-51

Mantis-8 Brown Beetles-6 Ant mimicking Spiders-3 Wingless Cockroach-2 Pan trap:Mantis-6 Spiders-2 Fireflies-2 Fruit flies-4 Mantis-14 Spiders-2 FruitFlies-10 Wingless Cockroach-3 AntMimickingSpiders-3 Wasps-4 Fireflies-2 Brown Beetles-6 Total Individuals-44

DATA RECORDED FROM SAMPLE

Butterflies Mantis Spiders

3 24 4

Fruit flies Wingless Cockroach Ant like spiders Wasps Fireflies Brown Beetles Total Individuals

24 18 3 10 3 6 95

ANALYSIS Finding Diversity for total no. Of individuals Pb=3/95=0.031578947 Pm=24/95=0.252631579 Ps=4/95=0.042105263 Pfr=24/95=0.252631579 Pwc=18/95=0.189473684 Pams=3/95=0.031578947 Pw=10/95=0.105263158 Pfi=3/95=0.031578947

Pbb=6/95=0.063157895 D= 1 - {(0.031578947)^2 + (0.252631579)^2 + (0.042105263)^2 + (0.252631579)^2 + (0.189473684)^2 + (0.031578947)^2 + (0.105263158)^2 + (0.031578947)^2 + (0.063157895)^2} D=0.81662

Efficiency of Methods Baited Trap:-Diversity from first sampling Total Individuals=(3+9+4+5+6+10+2+2+1+5+4)=51 Pbb=0.0588235 Pfr=0.176471 Pw=0.0784314 Pwc=0.0784314 D=0.953095 D (for individuals caught in this trap)=0.702948 Baited Trap:-Diversity from second sampling Total Individuals=(6+4+1+8+6+3+2+6+2+2+4)=44 Pfr=0.136364 Pw=0.0909091 Pwc=0.0227273 D=0.972624 D (for individuals caught in this trap)=0.561983 Pitfall trap:- Diversity from first sampling Total Individuals=(3+9+4+5+6+10+2+2+1+5+4)=51 Pm=0.117647

Pwc=0.196078 Ps=0.0392157 D=0.946175 D(for individuals caught in this trap)=0.567901 Pitfall trap:- Diversity from second sampling Total Individuals=(6+4+1+8+6+3+2+6+2+2+4)=44 Pm=0.181818 Pbb=0.136364 Pans=0.0681818 Pwc=0.0454545 D=0.941632 D(for individuals caught in this trap)=0.686981

Pan Trap:-Diversity from first sampling Total Individuals=(3+9+4+5+6+10+2+2+1+5+4)=51 Pw=0.0392157 Pfi=0.0196078 Pfr=0.0980392 Pm=0.0784314 D=0.982314 D(for individuals caught in this trap)=0.680556

Pan Trap:-Diversity from second sampling Total Individuals=(6+4+1+8+6+3+2+6+2+2+4)=44 Pm=0.136364 Ps=0.0454545 Pfi=0.0454545

Pfr=0.0909091 D=0.969008 D(for individuals caught in this trap)=0.693878 Insects Population Distribution

The above graph was obtained from sampling of the insects, it represents how the population of the insects, could have been distributed over the area. The field where we had our traps and
worked has insects, which depend upon same niche and the vegetation is same throughout the field. STATISTICAL APPROACH

CONCLUSION The average efficiency of the methods for getting insects of diversified species are as follows:Baited =0.96 Pitfall=0.94 Pan=0.97 Average of Diversity among insect species caught in traps are as follows:Baited= 0.63 Pitfall=0.62 Pan=0.68

DRAWBACKS Time:-This One month cannot give whole idea about the field(or the habitat)where we set traps for sampling and the insect population distribution over that .Frequency of sampling was not efficient enough because of climate. Once in two weeks, which can provide only little bit of reliability, because more no. of sampling could have increased reliability of this result. REFERENCE 1)insect species diversity in the tropics: Sampling methods and a case study Raghavendra gadagkar, k. Chandrashekara and padmini nair Journal of the bombay natural history society December 1990,Vol.87,No.3 2)Comparison of Pan Trap and Intensive Net Sampling Techniques for Documenting a Bee (Hymenoptera: Apiformes):Fauna T'ai H. Roulston, Stephen A. Smith,1'3 and Amanda L. Brewster2 University of Virginia, Blandy Experimental Farm, 400 Blandyarm Lane, Boyce,Virginia, 22620 USA JOURNAL OF THE KANSAS ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 80(2), 2007, pp. 179-181