Ar. Clarke et al., LARVAL TRAPPING AS A MEANS OF SAMPLING PAROPSINA (COLEOPTERA, CHRYSOMELIDAE, CHRYSOMELINAE) FROM EUCALYPTUS FORESTS, The Coleopterists bulletin, 52(3), 1998, pp. 253-258
Larvae of the Paropsina, the eucalyptus leaf beetles. feed externally
on the foliage of their Eucalyptus hosts. The extreme height of some e
ucalypt forests (50-90m) severely limits access to their canopies and
there is currently a lack of information on how Paropsina utilise thes
e tall native forests. Using Chrysophtharta bimaculata (Olivier) (Cole
optera: Chrysomelidae) as our test animal, we investigated the use of
prepupal bucket traps as an indirect means of sampling from different
age class forests. Chrysophtharta bimaculata larvae fall from their ho
st trees to pupate in the soil and we demonstrate that simple bucket t
raps are effective in catching and holding prepupal larvae that drop f
rom the forest canopy. Preliminary data is presented from samples take
n in adjacent plantation and mature forest stands, illustrating how th
is technique may be used in ecological and applied studies.