Baseline inventory of invertebrates at Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site: What is the effort and cost to collect and identify six target taxa?

A base-line survey of invertebrates was conducted in 2007 at the U. S. Army’s Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site, a 235,896 acre military training site near Trinidad, CO. Collections attempted to target taxa in Orthoptera, Lepidoptera, Apoidea, Asilidae, Carabidae, and Coccinellidae. Nine habitats were selected to be sampled with pitfall traps, sweep net sampling, beat sampling, butterfly surveying, and malaise traps. Over 15,000 individuals were collected and identified to species in the target taxa in this initial year of research. Specimens were identified by a specialist or trained technicians. It required 14,500 man hours to collect the specimens and process them to be pinned. Pitfall traps yielded the most individuals and species followed by malaise trapping, and butterfly surveying. Beat sampling and sweep sampling yielded no additional species and few individuals. Butterfly sampling yielded the only species of concern identified, a Euphilotes rita. Remaining taxa were preserved in alcohol. Araneae and Hemiptera specimens are currently with volunteer specialists for identification. Biodiversity surveys for all arthropods are difficult to conduct because they are time consuming and can become expensive. By focusing on collection techniques that collect target taxa, time spent in the field and in processing the samples can be used for identification instead, allowing for more taxa to be considered in the study.