Open AccessWeevils in pasture a comparison of sampling techniques
Author(s) -
M.R. McNeill,
Chikako van Koten
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
proceedings of the new zealand weed and pest control conference/new zealand plant protection/proceedings of the ... national weeds conference/proceedings of the new zealand weed control conference/proceedings of the new zealand plant protection conference
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 0370-2804
pISSN - 0370-0968
DOI - 10.30843/nzpp.2011.64.5987
Subject(s) - weevil , coring , curculionidae , biology , quadrat , sampling (signal processing) , pasture , hectare , population density , population , agronomy , ecology , materials science , agriculture , drilling , demography , filter (signal processing) , shrub , sociology , metallurgy , computer vision , computer science
This study compared four methods to quantitatively sample adult Listronotus bonariensis and Sitona lepidus (both Coleoptera Curculionidae) in dairy pasture with a view of determining an appropriate sampling method for accurate population estimation in terms of weevils/m2 Collections were made by one of three vacuum methods a vacuum cleaner to take 12 02 m2 quadrats a Vortis (24 16 cm diameter 002 m2) or blowervac (30 m ca 11 cm diameter 327 m2) to suck the weevils from the soil surface; or by taking turf cores (48 10 cm diameter 000785 m2) with extraction of weevils using a Berlesse funnel The sampling was carried out on three occasions and the four methods compared for each occasion Overall for both weevil species coring or the vacuum cleaner generally indicated significantly higher densities compared to the Vortis or blower vac and are concluded to be the most accurate methods for measuring adult density However the blowervac is a convenient tool for mass collection of weevils and parasitoids while the Vortis is useful for monitoring more fragile insects such as Hymenoptera