Beneficial Arthropods Associated with Buffalograss

Beneficial arthropods collected from buffalograss, Buchloe dactyloides (Nuttall) Engelmann, evaluation plots and vegetatively established buffalograss lawns included predatory ants, spiders, ground beetles, rove beetles, big-eyed bugs, and several species of hymenopterous parasitoids. Ants and spiders were the most abundant beneficial arthropods collected, representing 84% of the total beneficial arthropods captured. Pitfall traps collected >2.5 times as many (16,094) beneficial arthropods as sod plug samples (6,054), demonstrating that pitfall traps are a more effective technique than sod plugs for capturing highly mobile surface-dwelling arthropods. Families of parasitoids captured on sticky traps during the 2-yr sampling period included Scelionidae, Encyrtidae, Mymuridae, and Trichogrammatidae. Mymarids and trichogrammatids were the most abundant parasitoid families, representing 76.8% of the total parasitoids collected. Total numbers of beneficial arthropods collected from sites maintained at higher and lower management levels were not significantly different, suggesting that beneficial arthropod abundance may not be adversely affected by the 2 management regimes applied in this study.