Studying the abundance and recognizable taxanomic units of insects in woodlots and grasslands of York University keele campus using pan traps

Hypothesis: pan traps with brighter colours attract more insects since insects see the ultra violet spectrum and brighter colours reflect more UV light.<br>prediction 1: Yellow and white pan traps will attract more insects.<br>prediction 2: Blue pan traps will attract the least amount of insects.<br>Prediction 3: the more distance between the pan traps, the greater the number of insects in each of the pan traps.<br>Meta-data: This experiment was carried out to compare the abundance and different species of insects in woodlots and grasslands and to determine which colour of pan traps attracts more insects.<br>The experiment started at 3:05 by placing 9 pan traps(equal numbers of white, blue, and yellow pan traps) in grasslands and 9 pan traps in woodlots with 2 meters of distance from each other. All 18 of the pan traps were half filled with soapy water and they were placed on the ground in a white, yellow, blue pattern. The pan traps were collected at 4:18.<br>Then the number of insects in each pan trap was counted and the number of recognizable taxanomic units were also counted to determine diversity of insects in the area.<br>Site: The experiment took place in Danby forest near York University keele campus. <br>The provided pan traps were in three different colours(white, yellow, blue).The total abundance of insects was determined by counting the insects in each pan trap.RTU which is the recognizable taxonomic unit of insects was determined based on the physical appearance of each of the insects.<br><br>