The same Neuropteroidea community was collected and studied in Hungary in the years 1991 and 1992 by using different trapping techniques: a) Malaise trap, b) suction trap, c) yellow pan trap and d) light trap. The studies aimed to compare the different sampling methods for individual species, families and for the whole Neuropteroidea community. In case the whole Neuropteroidea community the trapped individual numbers collected by the suction trap surpassed all other trap types. Relatively high numbers of Neuropteroidea could be collected both by light trap and Malaise traps. The yellow pan traps did not succeed in catching large enough samples neither from point of view of sample size nor from species richness. According to the number of species collected there were not discovered any big difference between the catches of suction trap, Malaise traps and light trap.
By evaluating according to families it was stated that in case of the family Raphidiidae the
Malaise trap yielded larger and more diverse samples than any other methods; however by increasing the
number of yellow pan traps it is possible to augment the number of caught individuals. The suction traps
were found very satisfactory in collecting members of the family Coniopterygidae. For the members of the
families Hemerobiidae and Chrysopidae both the suction traps and light traps were found effective,
although suction traps were more successful in collecting Chrysopidae species.
Similarly, by evaluating the data according to individual species it was found that the Malaise
traps tended to “under-represent” species belonging to Hemerobius humulinus, Hemerobius Lutescens,
Chrysopa pallens and the ones belonging to Chrysoperla carnea complex compared to the suction trap. The
opposing situation was perceived with Micromus lanosus and Chrysopa perla. Similarly – compared to
suction trap – the light trap significantly “under-represented” the species Hemerobius humulinus, Hemerobius
lutescens, Chrysopa pallens, Chrysoperla carnea and Dichochrysa prasina and “over-represented”
Micromus angulatus, Sympherobius pygmaeus and Chrysopa phyllochroma.
The diversity of Neuropteroidea collected by Malaise trap and light trap surpassed significantly
the one of suction trap and yellow pan traps. The assemblages collected by different sampling methods
showed some overlapping, but differed in their characters
