Developing floral-baited traps to survey pollinators in insect-pollinated crops: findings from an oil palm case study

In this study, we used oil palm as a case study system to trial a new trap design to selectively survey pollinators of insect pollinated crops. The trap consisted of a pan trap baited with half a male oil palm inflorescence at anthesis, with varying number of flowers open. To assess effectiveness of the trap across different environments, we set pairs of baited and non-baited control pan traps in habitat conditions ranging from young to mature palms, and continuous blocks of oil palm to strips of oil palm around rivers in industrial oil palm plantations in Riau, Indonesia. We identified all arthropods collected to order level or lower.