Changes in phenology and abundance of suction-trapped Diptera from a farmland site in the UK over four decades

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1. Recently documented insect declines have caused major concerns and an increased interest in studies using long-term population-monitoring data.
2. Samples from a 12.2-m suction trap were used to examine trends in phenology and abundance of Diptera over four decades.
3. The timing of peak flight has advanced by an average of 17 days, from 23 July in 1974 to 6 July in 2014.
4. The abundance of flies has decreased by 37% over the studied period (from April to September), and peak abundance has decreased by 48%. The flight period has started earlier in recent years, and in 2014, the number of flies was higher in spring until the 31st of May than in 1974. Possible causes and impacts of these changes are discussed.
Original languageEnglish
JournalEcological Entomology
Volume45
Issue number5
Pages (from-to)1215-1219
Number of pages5
ISSN0307-6946
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.10.2020

Bibliographical note

We thank Dimitrios Stasinopoulos for help with the data analysis, Duncan Sivell for hosting S. Grabener at the Natural History Museum in London and for granting access to the Diptera collection, and Harry Ridgewell for his help in sorting Diptera from the traps. We also thank David Wagner and Vaughn Shirey for their valuable comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript. The Rothamsted Insect Survey, a National Capability, is funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council under the Core Capability Grant BBS/E/C/000J0200. There is no conflict of interest.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Authors. Ecological Entomology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Royal Entomological Society

    Research areas

  • Ecosystems Research - climate change, insect decline, long-term population trends, Rothamsted suction traps, flies diptera, insects, butterflies, predators, stream, plants, birds

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