Effects of Standard Management Practices on Prairie Arthropod Communities: Reporton the 1995-1996 Field Season

摘要

An ongoing project has been examining the arthropod fauna from praries lands ofwestern Minnesota. Objectives of this project are to determine the effects of various management practices on this fauna, to gather baseline data concerning this fauna, and to note the presence and status of rare or endangered species of Arthropods of these prairie lands. Arthropods were sampled from dry, mesic, wet, and sand prairies. Treatment regimes were burning, grazing, haying, and no-management. Sites were the Bientennial, Blazing Star, Bluestem, and Agassiz Dunes SNAs, Clay County owned lands, and the nearly B-B ranch. To date, 379 species have been identified representing approximately 13,600 specimens from the following groups: Orthoptera, Hemiptera, Homoptera, Coleoptera, and Lepidoptera. Rare species found in the course of this project to date: Chlorochroa belfragei (Pentatomidae), Aflexia rubranura (Cicadelidae), and Megacyllene powersi (Cerambycidae).