Statistics of tropical arthropods from hot air balloons

A group of international biologists conducted a large-scale inventory of arthropod biodiversity in tropical forests with over 6,000 species thanks to hot air balloons.

Scientists have determined the total number of arthropods in Panama's 12 regions. Thanks to the balloon they treated the pesticides thoroughly on the big old trees and collected the animals of this family that fell. The work done at the scene took 2 years, but the subsequent studies in the lab lasted for 7 consecutive years.

The airship business has been effective in the system
Statistics of insects in tropical forests.

As a result, in the area of ​​0.48 ha, scientists collected 129,494 individuals from 6144 species. Biodiversity of arthropods is closely related to the biodiversity of tree species, on average each species is home to 20 species. These numbers allow extrapolation of the characteristics of the whole region.

Bigfoot has the largest number of species according to the classification criteria called taxon, including insects, spiders and shellfish. It is estimated that more than 1 million arthropods have been recorded, but it is estimated that their species will range from a few tens of millions to hundreds of millions of species.

Insects make up most of the arthropods, not only on the ground but also in the water. In tropical forests they are the most numerous and important in the biosphere.