Using malaise traps to sample ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae).

Pitfall traps provide an easy and inexpensive way to sample ground-dwelling arthropods (Spence and Niemela 1994; Spence et al. 1997; Abildsnes and Tommeras 2000) and have been used exclusively in many studies of the abundance and diversity of ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Despite the popularity of this trapping technique, pitfall traps have many disadvantages. For example, they often fail to collect both small (Spence and Niemela 1994) and “trap-shy” species (Benest 1989), eventually deplete the local carabid population (Digweed et al. 1995), require a species to be ground-dwelling in order to be captured (Liebherr and Mahar 1979), and produce different results depending on trap diameter and material, type of preservative used, and trap placement (Greenslade 1964; Luff 1975; Work et al. 2002). Further complications arise from seasonal patterns of movement among the beetles themselves (Maelfait and Desender 1990), as well as numerous climatic factors, differences in plant cover, and variable surface conditions (Adis 1979). Because of these limitations, pitfall trap data give an incomplete picture of the carabid community and should be interpreted carefully. Additional methods, such as use of Berlese funnels and litter washing (Spence and Niemela 1994), collection from lights (Usis and MacLean 1998), and deployment of flight intercept devices (Liebherr and Mahar 1979; Paarmann and Stork 1987), should be incorporated in surveys to better ascertain the species composition and relative numbers of ground beetles. Flight intercept devices, like pitfall traps, have the advantage of being easy to use and replicate, but their value to carabid surveys is largely unknown. Here we demonstrate the effectiveness of Malaise traps for sampling ground beetles in a bottomland hardwood forest