Thread subject: Diptera.info :: Insects as biodiversity indicators - URGENT

Posted by Susan R Walter on 01-08-2008 08:53
#12

Rui - you have hit upon one of the great disadvantages of malaise traps and the main reason I don't use one. Malaise traps really need a team of people and an individual with plenty of time because of the quantity of material. I am more and more careful to limit my catch to what I have time to deal with, but I am doing this in my more and more limited 'spare' time. The disadvantage for the site is that there are many species I will never pick up using just a net and pooter, but there is no diptera inventory (except for syrphidae) for the site I am working on now, so c'est d?j? ?a ;)

I would suggest pan traps are quite good for small scale diptera surveys, being cheap and easy to manage, if you want to go beyond just netting, but still have limited time.

The two other reasons I have never used a malaise is the expense and I was previously surveying a site where it would have been vandalised and I am now surveying a site that I can't get to regularly enough to check the trap (although hopefully that will change in the next year or so).