Pan Traps In Grassland and Woodlot Habitats/Sites at York Univesity

Hypothesis:If bright coloured pan traps are used, then there would be an increase in abundance of captured insects. This is because insects are only capable of seeing the environment in ultraviolet (UV) spectrum. Since, light colours, like yellow and white, can reflect more UV light; insects are therefore more attracted to light colours.Prediction 1: Dark coloured pan traps attract the least amount of insectsPrediction 2: Placing pan traps about one meter apart from one another, would attract more insects.Metadata:The purpose of this experiment, done on September 28, 2016, at 2:30 p.m., was to determine which colour and arrangement of pan traps would attract the most insects. The data was collected by placing coloured solo bowls filled with soapy water in different habitat types at the beginning of lab,approximately 3:00 p.m. . These bowls were placed in a particular sequence: yellow, white, blue and were spaced approximately one meter apart. Nine of these bowls were placed in the grassland habitat and nine of them were placed in the woodlot habitat. At approximately 4:15 p.m., we returned to these habitats and recorded the data, which can be seen in the excel file above. The Variables:Site: Also known as habitat which in this case were both grassland and woodlot.Colour of Pan Trap: We were provided with three different colours of the bowls which were blue, white and yellow. The three kinds of bowls were placed in a distinct sequence: yellow, white and blue. Abundance: This was calculated by counting the number of flies that were in each coloured bowl. As one can see from the data, that in both habitats or sites, yellow and white bowls collected more insects than the blue bowls.RTU: This stands for recognizable taxonomic units. This is calculated by analyzing the species of the insects. As one can see from the data that the yellow and white bowls had more or the same number of RTUs in the blue bowl. In the grassland habitat, there were mostly Diptera flies, specifically flesh flies,which were found mainly in the yellow and white bowls. In the woodlot habitat, there was mainly no insect found in the blue bowls. White bowls mostly consisted of Diptera, specifically houseflys. The yellow bowls were where one mostly found an unknown particular species of flies.