Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University, Grinnells Animal Health Laboratories, Raleigh, NC.
J Insect Sci. 2020 Nov 1;20(6). doi: 10.1093/jisesa/ieaa083.
Understanding collection methodologies and their limitations are essential when targeting specific arthropods for use in habitat restoration, conservation, laboratory colony formation, or when holistically representing local populations using ecological surveys. For dung beetles, the most popular collection methodology is baited traps, followed by light traps and unbaited flight-intercept traps during diversity surveys. A less common collection method, flotation, is assumed to be laborious and messy, and so only a handful of papers exist on its refinement and strengths. Our purpose was threefold: First, we tested the recovery and survival rates of Labarrus (=Aphodius) pseudolividus (Balthasar) and Onthophagus taurus (Schreber) when floating beetle-seeded dung pats to determine potential collection and safety issues. We collected 72.4 and 78% of the seeded L. pseudolividus and O. taurus, respectively, with >95% survival rating. Second, we developed a flotation-sieving technique that enables users to rapidly collect and passively sort dung beetles with less time and effort. Specifically, we often collected 50-100 g of wild dung beetles within a couple of hours of gathering dung and sorted them in a couple more by allowing dung beetles to sort themselves by size within a series of sieves; Third, we reviewed flotation-based advantages and disadvantages in comparison to other methodologies.
了解收集方法及其局限性对于针对特定节肢动物进行栖息地恢复、保护、实验室群体形成非常重要，或者在使用生态调查全面代表当地种群时也是如此。对于蜣螂，最流行的收集方法是诱饵陷阱，其次是在多样性调查中使用灯光陷阱和无诱饵飞行拦截陷阱。浮选是一种不太常见的收集方法，被认为既费力又麻烦，因此只有少数几篇论文涉及到它的改进和优势。我们的目的有三个：首先，我们测试了浮选矿 seeded 粪块时 Labarrus（=Aphodius）pseudolividus（Balthasar）和 Onthophagus taurus（Schreber）的回收率和存活率，以确定潜在的收集和安全问题。我们分别收集了 72.4%和 78%的 seeded L. pseudolividus 和 O. taurus，存活率均超过 95%。其次，我们开发了一种浮选筛选技术，使用户能够更快速地收集和被动地对蜣螂进行分类，同时减少时间和精力。具体来说，我们通常在收集粪便后的几个小时内收集 50-100 克野生蜣螂，并通过让蜣螂在一系列筛子中按大小自行分类来在几个小时内对它们进行分类；第三，我们比较了浮选与其他方法相比的优缺点。
