Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

COMPARISON OF THE EFFICIENCY OF TWO METHODS OF SAMPLING BEE FAUNA (HYMENOPTERA: APOIDEA) IN EASTERN DRY ZONE OF KARNATAKA, INDIA

Arati Pannure and K. Chandrashekara

Abstract

Concern about a global decline in bee pollinators has increased interest in developing effective sampling methods. There are several methods available for sampling bees, only few of these methods have been evaluated for their performance. The study aimed at evaluation of the efficiency of traditional ‘sweep-nets’ and ‘pan traps’ sampling methods. This may be probably first attempt made in India to measure bee pollinator’s population in agricultural landscapes using combination of these two methods. The study reveals that the sweep-nets showed a tendency to capture more species than ‘pan traps’. A comparison of the two sampling methods by Sorenson’s similarity index showed that only 39 per cent of the species were shared by two methods. Therefore, sole reliance on sweep-netting or on the pan-trapping as sampling method for proposed studies of bee faunas will be an incomplete survey and will lead to erroneous conclusions about bee species’ diversity and abundance.