Project:

Malaise Trapping By-Catch Biodiversity

Students:

Charles Clague, Richie Colasonno

School:

Chaminade High School, Nassau

Mentors:

Karen Kuntz

Abstract:

The Malaise Trap was invented in 1934 by Swedish entomologist René Malaise in order to passively catch and preserve various types of flying insects (Uhler et al., 2022). Recently, Dr. Carly Tribull from Farmingdale State College has been collecting parasitoid wasps on Long Island using Malaise traps. In the process, she has collected many different flying species of insects along with the wasps (Jeffry Petracca, personal communication). The purpose of this barcoding project is to explore the biodiversity of species that were collected alongside these parasitoid wasps and to try to draw some conclusions about why they may have been attracted to these Malaise traps.

Poster:

Team samples: