Efficiencies of three insect collection methods in Lamto, Cte dIvoire

Insects are of ecological and economic importance. This study was carried out to compare the efficiency of the three main insect sampling methods namely, sweep net, hand sampling and the light trap and also to show the biodiversity distribution from Lamto habitats for good biological conservation. A total of 379 individuals belonging to 9 orders were collected. Significantly, more individuals were collected by sweeping net compared to hand sampling and light trap. From the capture rate, highest rate was recorded for sweeping net (0.720) followed by hand (0.232) and light trap (0.047). The lowest value of Shannon’s index was 0.672 with the light trap followed by hand (1.375) and the highest was 1.940 with sweeping net in Lamto’s habitats. The insect orders recorded with the hand were Heteroptera, Coleoptera, Homoptera, Hymenoptera, Orthoptera, Diptera and Isoptera (F = 11.340, P value = 0.006). Light trap was more suitable to capture Lepidoptera (3.250%), Coleoptera (0.750%) and Homoptera (0.500%) (F= 6.659, P value= 0.0001). The abundance index recorded with the sweeping net commonly varied between 0.0 and 18.250%. Both sweeping net and hand insect sampling techniques were the most efficient and showed the highest insect orders complementarity. However, the use of sweep net, hand sampling and light trap were recommended to have good collection of insects.   Key words: Sweep net, light trap, hand sampling, insects’ conservation, capture effectiveness.