Ecology Lab: Sweep Net Dataset:

Method: The purpose of this experiment was to determine the abundance of different insect species in different habitats, such as grassland and Woodlot. The experiment was taken place at York University Keele campus around east of Stong Pond and Saywell Woodlot on September-30-2014 and the data was collected at 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm. Experiment at grassland was taken at 3:00pm-3:50pm and Woodlot experiment taken at 4:10pm - 5:00pm at York University Keele campus. The weather was mostly cloudy and cold with the temperature of 17 degree Celsius. In this experiment the sweep nets technique for capturing the insects was used in grassland and woodland. The 20m transect was placed ramdonly in the middle of the grassland and the sweep net was held in hand, during this experiment I walked along the 20m transect and continuously moving the sweep net to capture the insects inside the net. There were more insects in the grassland becuase experiment was taken in the middle of the grassland. The 20m transect was placed on the edge of Woodlot and the sweep net was held in hand, during this experiment I walked along the 20m transect and continuously moving the sweep net to capture the insects inside the net. There were few insects captured on the woodlod because the experiment was taken on the edge of the woodlot. For both grassland and Woodlot experiment the process was repeated 10 times and for each transect i walked for approximately 5 mintues for each trail. The data was collected by counting the total number of insects inside the net for each trail and for each habitats. The total number of different insect species was differentiated based on their phenotypes and other features for each trail and for each habitats. The most abundant insect species on the Stond Pond area were bee = (German Yellowjacket (Vespula germanica)), fly (green bottle fly (Phaenicia app.)), crickets = (field cricket (Gryllus pennsylvanicus)), grasshopper (carolina grasshopper (Dissosteira caroline)), mosquito and the most abundant insect species on the Woodlot were crickets (field cricket (Gryllus pennsylvanicus)), mosquito and grasshoppers (carolina grasshopper (Dissosteira caroline)) . Data: Transect # 10x for each habitat Distance: 20m Time: Approximately 5 minutes per transects. Habitats: Grassland: 10 transects samples were taken at East of Stond Pond at York University Keele campus. Woodland: 10 transects samples were taken at Saywell Woodlot at York University Keele campus. Total number of insects captured: All the insects captured within 20m distance inside the sweep net were counted for each trial. Total number of unique rtus: The different insect species were observed and differentiated using their phenotype and other features for each trail. Observed Insect species: B=bee (German Yellowjacket (Vespula germanica)) C= Cricket (field cricket (Gryllus pennsylvanicus)), M=mosquito, F=fly (green bottle fly (Phaenicia app.)), G=grasshopper (carolina grasshopper (Dissosteira caroline)).