Sampling Grasshoppers (Orthoptera: Acrididae) on Burned and Unburned Tallgrass Prairie: Night Trapping vs. Sweeping 1

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Abstract
Two techniques, sweeping with a canvas net and night trapping with a portable trap, were compared as means of sampling Acridid grasshoppers in burned and unburned tallgrass prairie in eastern Kansas. Mark-release experiments revealed that night traps on both burned and unburned sites throughout the summer captured roughly three-fourths of the grasshoppers when the weather was clear and warm; thus, the technique provides good estimates of seasonal change in absolute density. Ability to capture grasshoppers on unburned vs. burned prairie differed for sweep sampling(in contrast to night trapping); only 30 to 40% as many grasshoppers (per grasshopper present) were collected by sweeping on unburned vs. burned sites. Furthermore, grasshoppers were captured more readily by sweeping as they grew older. Therefore, sweeping provided poor estimates of how the relative abundance of grasshoppers (1) changed seasonally at a site, and (2) differed between burned and unburned sites. Sweeping and night trapping provided similar estimates of the relative abundances of individual species present at anyone place and time on either burned or unburned prairie.

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