Abundance of insects using quadrats at grassland and woodlot

The dataset was collected by 4 ecology student from BIOL 2050. The experiment was conducted on two areas, York University’s Grassland and Woodlot, on September 28, 2015 at 15:00. It was a cloudy afternoon, mild wind, 88% humidity. 10 quadrats were randomly placed on the ground at each study site. Within two minutes interval, total number of insects present within the quadrat were visually counted. Insect phenotypes were also observed in order to identify the species and the recognizable taxonomic unit (RTU) of each species were recorded. The hypothesis was that grassland habitat was more suitable for insects compared to woodlot habitat due to the coverage of vegetation and plant species. Results showed that insects were more abundant at grassland than woodlot. Various type of insects were identified, including Black Grass Bug (Labops hesperius), Leaf Beetles (Chrysomelidae), Fall Field Cricket (Gryllus pennsylvanicus), Northern Blowfly (Protophormia terraenovae), Black Ant (Lasius niger), Red-Legged Grasshopper (Melanoplus femurrubrum), Grass Spider (Agelena Naevia).