Influence of leaf litter moisture on the efficiency of the Winkler method for extracting ants
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Biological Evaluation Section, 29 rue Vautier, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
Abstract
The Winkler extraction is one of the two fundamental sampling techniques of the standardized "Ants of the Leaf Litter" protocol, which aims to allow qualitative and quantitative comparisons of ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) assemblages. To achieve this objective, it is essential that the standard 48–hour extraction provides a reliable picture of the assemblages under study. Here, we tested to what extent the efficiency of the ant extraction is affected by the initial moisture content of the leaf litter sample. In an Ecuadorian mountain rainforest, the leaf litter present under rainfall–excluded and rainfall–allowed plots was collected, its moisture content measured, and its ant fauna extracted with a mini–Winkler apparatus for a 48–hour and a 96–hour period. The efficiency of the Winkler method to extract ant individuals over a 48–hour period decreased with the moisture content of the leaf litter sample. However, doubling the extraction time did not improve the estimations of the ant species richness, composition, and relative abundance. Although the moisture content of the leaf litter slightly affected the ant sampling, our results indicated that a 48–hour Winkler extraction, as recommended by the "Ants of the Leaf Litter" protocol, is sufficient to allow reliable comparisons of ant assemblages.
Keywords: ants of leaf litter protocol, Ecuador, Formicidae, mountain rainforest, rainfall exclusion, rapid biodiversity assessment, sampling method evaluation, Winkler extraction time
Correspondence: a Thibaut.Delsinne@sciencesnaturelles.be, b tmilenaa@gmail.com, *Corresponding author
Received: 14 February 2011 | Accepted: 18 March 2011 | Published: 25 April 2012
Copyright: This is an open access paper. We use the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license that permits unrestricted use, provided that the paper is properly attributed.
ISSN: 1536-2442 | Volume 12, Number 57
Delsinne TD, Arias-Penna TM. 2012. Influence of leaf litter moisture on the efficiency of the Winkler method for extracting ants. Journal of Insect Science 12:57 available online: insectscience.org/12.57
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