A COMPARISON OF HERPETOFAUNAL SAMPLING EFFECTIVENESS OF PITFALL, SINGLE-ENDED, AND DOUBLE-ENDED FUNNEL TRAPS USED WITH DRIFT FENCES

We assessed the relative effectiveness of pitfalls, single-ended, and double-ended funnel traps at 12 replicate sites in sand pine scrub usi ng drift fence arrays. Pitfalls captured fewer species but yielded mor e individuals of many species and higher average species richness than funnel traps. Pitfalls and funnel traps exhibited differential captur e bias probably due to differences in behavior or morphology. More sur face-active lizards, frogs, and small semifossorial herpetofaunal spec ies were captured in pitfalls whereas captures of large snake species were restricted to funnel traps. Double-ended funnel traps captured tw ice as many large snakes as single-ended funnel traps. All three trap types yielded similar estimates of relative abundance of lizards and f rogs but not snakes. Estimates of relative abundance of large snakes w ere higher for double-ended funnel traps than pitfalls or single-ended funnel traps. Pitfall and funnel traps yield complementary results, a nd choice of type(s) depends on target species and sampling goals.