Mark-recapture of Agriotes obscurus and Agriotes lineatus with dense arrays of pheromone traps in an undisturbed grassland population reservoir.

The present study was conducted using mark-released populations of male Agriotes obscurus ( AO) and Agriotes lineatus ( AL) adults to simulate the spatial and temporal capture rates of wild beetle populations in dense arrays of pheromone traps in a confined, nonfarmed habitat., Two parallel rows of traps, spaced 3 m apart along corridors of grassy dyke, recaptured 85.6% of AO and 77.8% of AL with arrays of their respective pheromone traps, mostly within the first week of release. In arrays of mixed AO and AL traps, recapture rates were 77.8% and 83.3%, respectively., In arrays with only AO traps, 31.2% of AL males released within the arrays mistakenly entered the AO traps, which declined to only 2.2% when released in arrays with both AO and AL traps. In arrays with only AL traps, only 0.7% of released AO were mistakenly taken in the AL traps, and only 0.3% mistakenly entered AL traps in mixed AO and AL trap arrays., Between 34.4-38.9% of AO and 21.1-25.6% of AL released in areas immediately adjacent to the trapping arrays were caught, mostly in the outermost traps., The implications of these results for determining the efficacy of mass trapping as a click beetle management approach are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]