TEMPORAL PATTERNS OF ABUNDANCE OF ARTHROPODS ON SAND DUNES.

Barrows, Cameron W.

During >1 decade, I surveyed arthropods on a desert sand-dune system in the Coachella Valley, Riverside County, California. The most abundant of these arthropods were Coachella Valley giant sand-treader crickets Macrobaenetes valgum (Orthoptera: Rhapidophoridae), beetles Asbolus laevis and Edrotes ventricosus (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae), and California harvester ants Pogonomyrmex californicus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). While dynamics of M. valgum closely tracked precipitation, the other three species had complex fluctuations that often lacked correlations to annual rainfall. Beyond identifying departures from expected rainfall-driven relationships, an important outcome was an understanding of how long-term datasets are essential for understanding dynamics of populations.

COACHELLA Valley (Calif.); RIVERSIDE County (Calif.); CALIFORNIA; ARTHROPODA; SAND dunes; HARVESTER ants; TENEBRIONIDAE; STATISTICAL correlation

Southwestern Naturalist, 2012, Vol 57, Issue 3, p262

0038-4909

Academic Journal

10.1894/0038-4909-57.3.262