Data Collected :
-Résultats insect monitoring (VE) (2016)
Background
The WCMG, helped by two French students specialized in Agronomy, has just started to carry out its insect monitoring plan. Indeed, the main goal of this study, in a long-term basis, is to quantify the impact of the restoration program on the insect populations.
Description of the trap
- Composition of one trap
One trap is composed of two traps, set up back to back so that each can be oriented towards opposed cardinal points. They seem to be like tents made of screen mesh. The traps are fixed in the soil thanks to tent pegs and one stick (See photo of the trap below).
- Working principle
Once trap is set up, insects enter the large opening and then go up to the top of the “tent”. They are moving until the hole where they fall down in a bottle full of alcohol. Insects are trapped in the bottle and conserved thanks to alcohol.
Implementation and Protocol
Traps, directly coming from France and designed by Jean Pierre Sarthou, a French farmer and teacher-researcher, have been set up on different places around Taharoa Trust farm to, firstly, analyze their efficiency.
Currently, work is being undertaken on three areas:
- Areas along the Whangawehi River in Native tree blocks
- Fenced Wetlands
- Grazing lands
- Bush block fenced off 10 years ago
The idea is to build an overview of the insect population by doing comparisons: Is the fencing plan of wetlands and river sides efficient? Could the tree restoration program carried out on the river sides attract more insects?
Thanks to the implementation of this monitoring tools, we hope we will be able to answer those questions soon.
Ideally, the idea is to develop an insect monitoring tool for a long-term efficiency. Indeed, traps will be set up along the river in specific points to study year-by-year the evolution of the insect populations linked to the restoration program.
The traps will be checked every week and analyzed by doing an insect classification. Each insect has to be classify in a specific order : diptera, lepidoptera, hymenoptera, coleoptera, homoptera etc… Thus, an insect distribution could be drawn up to describe the impact of the restoration program on insects.
Insects classified in different orders
Diptera order : flies, mosquitos…
Data :
2017 : Insect survey 2017
Whangawehi Catchment Management Group 