Welcome to Chinese Journal of Ecology! Today is Share:

cje ›› 2009, Vol. 28 ›› Issue (09): 1862-1870.

• Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Research methods on ant community.

LI Qiao1;CHEN You-qing2;XU Zheng-hui1   

  1. 1Faculty of Conservation Biology, Southwest Forestry College, Kunming 650224, China;2 Institute of Resources Insects, Chinese Academy of Forestry,Kunming 650224, China
  • Online:2009-09-10 Published:2009-09-10

Abstract: This paper summarized the common methods for sampling and analyzing ant community, reviewed the advantages and shortages of pitfall trapping, quadrat sampling, baiting, leaf-litter sampling, hand collection, chemical knocking-down, intensive sampling, and sample plot investigation, analyzed the efficiency of sampling ants by different sampling methods, introduced the ALL Protocol and ant functional groups, and compared the applications of species accumulation curve, relative abundance, species richness, and diversity index in the analysis of ant community. In the current researches on ant community, the methods adopted were not standard enough, and it was suggested that in order to have a scientific and reliable estimation of ant species richness, the ALL Protocol should be used to investigate the ant communities throughout China, the methods for sampling
ants should be compared in heterogeneous habitats, and the analysis of ant community’s species accumulation curve and relative abundance should be conducted in national scale.

Key words: Chinese cabbage, Plutella xylostella, Volatiles