Development of an automated Malaise trap multisampler

The development and refinement of automated biodiversity assessment technologies could be a game changer for the identification of drivers of ongoing insect declines. In the AMMOD (“Automated Multisensor Stations for Monitoring of BioDiversity”) project, experts from various disciplines joined forces to develop an autonomous multi-sensor station for the assessment of biodiversity, which can provide species occurrence data across trophic levels and taxonomic groups (Wägele et al. 2022). Insects are one of the most diverse groups on earth and are routinely used as bioindicators for the health of ecosystems. Using metabarcoding, laboratory workflows can be automated, processing hundreds of samples in parallel and resulting in the rapid identification of thousands of insects. However, insect collection in the field is still the limiting factor, and requires, depending on study design, large capacities in human resources associated with high costs. Long-term monitoring studies are therefore often hindered by staff and budget shortages, especially in remote, inaccessible, and rural areas. Here we present an automated Malaise trap multisampler, designed for the autonomous capture of flying insects over a period of up to six months without human intervention. The AMMOD multisampler can collect up to 12 individual bulk samples at programmable intervals and is equipped with a communication system which keeps the user informed about the status of the system.