Moreover, capture efficiency of pitfall traps can be affected by climatic factors and habitat types of Abu Dhabi Emirate. Our findings indicate that to study ground dwelling invertebrate species, pitfall trapping is an efficient method. The highest diversity of arthropods was recorded from a site Wadi Tarabat, followed by Al Wathba Wetland Reserve (AWWR) and Abu Al Abyed. The arthropod fauna was recorded to be highly diversified in different habitat types, but the number of individuals were not evenly distributed across the study sites (H) 1.10, (E) 0.53, Shannon Diversity Index). On average 37.5 ± 3 (mean ± SE) species were recorded every month from all the study sites and number of species did not vary significantly across the months (df = 11, F = 0.48, p = 0.91 one-way – ANOVA).
The order Coleoptera (beetles) was recorded to be the most dominant order with 46 species followed by Hymenoptera (ants, bees & wasps) with 24 species. A total of 36,238 individuals of ground-dwelling arthropods of 121 different species belonging to 14 orders and 46 families were recorded from all the study sites using pitfall traps. During the study period a total of 94 monitoring visits were made to collect data from the pitfall traps at five sites in Abu Dhabi. During the present study, conducted between March 2009 and March 2015, pitfall trapping was undertaken in five study sites of different habitats in Abu Dhabi Emirate. Pitfall trapping is an efficient self-sampling method for capturing epigeal arthropods for ecological and faunistic studies.
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