[Taxacom] insect inventory in NPR

[John Noyes]

Hi Donat and others,

It also seems that the estimate of 25,000 species of arthropods for this area of forest could be seriously on the low side as it is based on an estimated 6144 species collected in a half hectare plot. Given that there do not seem to be any recognised microhymenopterists involved in the study I would guess that the estimated number of species in this group would be seriously on the  low side. In my experience a similar area of forest in Costa Rica would contain at least 1800 species of microhymenoptera and smaller Coleoptera  alone (a six hour screen sweep sample of vegetation from ground level to about 2.5m in La Selva in Costa Rica produced about 1800 species of these groups - these were all sorted to species by the recognised world authorities in their respective groups - I can send a PDF of this paper if anyone wants a copy). Throw in the other groups, other seasons, other levels of the forest and more intensive sampling in the same area of  forest and you could probably at least double the number estimated by Basset, et al. Add Terry's comments into the mix and you probably get to see that it is all really pie in the sky.

John

John Noyes
Scientific Associate
Department of Entomology
Natural History Museum
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South Kensington
London SW7 5BD 
UK
jsn at nhm.ac.uk
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Universal Chalcidoidea Database (everything you wanted to know about chalcidoids and more):
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-----Original Message-----
From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu [mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of JF Mate
Sent: 15 December 2012 16:43
To: Taxacom
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] insect inventory in NPR

Oh the irony:

...Terry Erwin, an entomologist at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., who was not involved in the study, cautions against putting too much weight on the estimated number of species. "This study is exciting because they've taken a large team of people and used every technique available," he says. "But to take a little sample from one place and scale up, it's been critiqued and critiqued and it just doesn't work."

Still, wise words.


On 15 December 2012 05:48, Donat Agosti <agosti at amnh.org> wrote:
> And it is original coverage made it even onto the Science cover
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> http://www.sciencemag.org/content/338/6113.cover-expansion
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> Here a little blurb about an insect survey in Panama in NPR
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> http://www.npr.org/2012/12/14/167163274/counting-bugs-in-panama-get-ou
> t-your-tree-raft
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> and an audio
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> http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1 
> <http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=fal
> se&id=167163274&m=167230696> 
> &t=1&islist=false&id=167163274&m=167230696
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> Donat
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