Tuesday, December 11, 2001 - 1:42 PM
0665

Effective sampling area of a monitoring station for population estimates of Formosan subterranean termites (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae)

Helena Puche and Nan-Yao Su. FLREC University of Florida, Department of Entomology, 3205 College Ave, Fort Lauderdale, FL

In total, ~ 4 600 000 marked workers of the Formosan subterranean termite, were released from 19 different sites in south Florida using the underground monitoring stations. The monitoring station°¦s effective sampling area, a, i. e., the area by which we need to divide the trap catch to obtain an estimate of population size, was estimated using the equation, a=2 p integral { r P (r )} dr , where P(r), was the average proportion of captured termites that started at the distance r from the trap. The average affective sampling area per station was estimated and varied among sites. We found that the probability of capture declines with distance between the station and the release point.

Species 1: Isoptera Rhinotermitidae Coptotermes formosanus (Formosan subterranean termite)
Keywords: Trap catch, Population estimate

The ESA 2001 Annual Meeting - 2001: An Entomological Odyssey of ESA