The Insect Distribution and Physical Density of York University

On September 28th, 2015, at approximately 3:10-3:30, At the York University campus’ Danby Woods, an experiment was conducted using qudrats to count the number of insects in the grassland and compare it to the number of insects found in the woodlot. The weather was around 18 degrees Celsius with very little sunlight, but a strong wind force. This day, I worked with a group of five: Taylor, Amena, Antoni, Hinal, and myself. Hinal and I decided to partner up and work on my quadrat experiment together. Starting in the grassland region, we used the random numbers website and with the number generated, took that many steps. Once the destination was reached, we placed the quadrat down, waited a minute until the bugs settled in, and then counted the number of insects spotted and the variety of insects. We completed these steps ten times and then moved onto the woodlot and conducted the same procedures. We were able to spot: ants, mosquitoes, fruit flies, spiders, crickets, and some small green bugs. It was noted that there were more insects found in the grassland as opposed to the woodlot region. The reason more insects were found inside the grassland could be because there were more plants there that insects would be able to reside. It was also evident that the insects were near the mid regions of the grassland, where there were flowerings and more grass coverage. Therefore, comparing the grassland and woodlot regions, there was much more diversity and a greater number of insects in the grassland region.