Comparison of beat cloth and entomological net methods for determining faunistic indices of soybean in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

ABSTRACT Estimates of diversity indices provide information on distribution, richness and abundance of species within a community. The aim of the current study was to estimate faunistic indices (richness, constancy, dominance and abundance) of the species collected by beat cloth and entomological net sampling methods in different soybean crops and to determine the sample size necessary to estimate faunistic indices. Fauna density from 100 soybeans crops located in nine municipalities in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, were evaluated. Thirty points, 20 meters apart from one another, were marked in the crops. At each point, insect pests and natural enemies were collected using the two sampling methods. Faunistic indices, including the average and interval estimates carried out by the resampling method, were calculated for each soybean crop. In the samplings using the beat cloth, richness > dominance = abundance > constancy, and using the entomological nets, richness > dominance > abundance > constancy. All faunistic indices other than dominance were greater when using the beat cloth method than those estimated by the entomological net method. The sample sizes required to estimate richness, constancy, dominance and abundance indices were 38, 78, 47 and more than 300, respectively, with an estimation error of 20 % of the average (p = 0.05). Higher values were observed when entomological net was used.