LARVAL TRAPPING AS A MEANS OF SAMPLING PAROPSINA (COLEOPTERA, CHRYSOMELIDAE, CHRYSOMELINAE) FROM EUCALYPTUS FORESTS

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.