An Alpine Malaise trap

Abstract

The Southernmost region of Australia, the island of Tasmania, is also the most mountainous, with large areas of rugged alpine environments. This entomological frontier offers a distinct suite of insects for study including many endemic taxa. However, harsh weather, remote locations and rough terrain represent an environment too extreme for many existing insect trap designs. We report here on the design and efficacy of a new Alpine Malaise Trap (AMT), which can be readily hybridised with several other common insect trapping techniques. Advantages of the design include its light weight and portability, low cost, robustness, rapid deployment and long autonomous sampling period. The AMT was field tested in the Tasmanian highlands (AUST) in 2017. A total of 16 orders were collected. As expected, samples are dominated by Diptera. However, the trap also collected a range of flightless taxa including endemic and apterous species, Apteropanorpatasmanica – closest relative of the boreal, snow scorpionflies (Boreidae). Combined and compared with other trap types the Alpine Malaise Traps captured less specimens but of a greater diversity than passive sticky traps, while drop traps captured less specimens but a greater diversity than AMT. The statistical potential of the catch is discussed.