Ecology of urban arthropods: A review and a call to action

A review of the entomological literature revealed relatively few general st udies on arthropods in urban environments, excluding those in the context o f pest control or epidemiology, and all were limited in scope and duration. Most studies documented the presence and. abundance of species in a variet y of poorly quantified urban categories. There also were a number of studie s on the effects of urban pollution and changes in arthropod community comp osition over time (particularly in urban green areas). From these studies, three groups of arthropods could be identified: (1) "rural" taxa not presen t (or at lower abundance) in urban settings, (2) "urban" taxa present only (or at higher abundance) in urban settings, and (3) taxa present in both ru ral and urban settings with no particular affinity for either. The lack of a basic understanding of the mechanisms accounting for distributional and a bundance patterns of urban arthropods illustrates the many opportunities fo r entomological research that exist in urban settings. Some of these opport unities are outlined to encourage further work on the ecology of urban arth ropods.