Comparison of sampling techniques for tarnished plant bug and predaceous arthropods

摘要

The relative efficiencies of beat sheet, sweep net and a hand-carried pneumatic keep-it-simple sampler (KISS) for sampling the tarnished plant bug and predaceous arthropods in cotton were examined in 1999. We used variance/mean ratio (#sigma#~2/x-bar) as the criteria for comparing sampling techniques. KISS and beat sheets collected similar numbers of tarnished plant bugs which were significantly greater than those collected by sweep nets. All three sampling methods had similar #sigma#~2/x-bar ratios for the tarnished plant bug. KISS collected significantly more beneficial arthropods than beat sheets which, in turn, collected significantly more beneficials than sweep nets. Variance/mean ratios of beneficial arthropods were similar for KISS and sweep nets which were significantly smaller than those for beat sheets. We found that beat sheets and KISS effectively captured the tarnished plant bug while sweep net was less effective especially at low population densities. KISS appears to be the method of choice for sampling beneficial arthropods.