Prospects for the rapid assessment of terrestrial invertebrate biodiversity

Prospects for the rapid assessment of terrestrial invertebrate biodiversity.Memoirs o/'the Museum of Vicloria 56(2): 349-354.Calls for rapid biodiversity assessment (RBA) have not always been explicit about what is meant by Rapid or by Biodiversity Assessment.Rapid can imply (i) a need for immediate results.(ii) speedy field survey, (iii) the use of diversity measures based on taxonomic identification to categories above the species level, or (iv) fast(?) post-field techniques such as the use of recognisable taxonomic units (RTU) in place of species-level identification.Some policy documents confound more than one meaning in a single statement.Biodiversity. in invertebrate survey work.has been taken to mean species richness.though the significance of such a measure for conservation evaluation purposes has not been estab lished.This paper reports on a rapid (fast).rapid (short sampling time) comparison ofrapid (higher taxon and morpho-species) versus non-rapid (species level) approaches to species richness assay at five disparate sites in north-east Tasmania.The study has implications for Rapid Biodiversity Assessment in several of its meanings.