Preliminary assessment of the biodiversity of arthropods of a central Queensland dry rainforest

The arthropod fauna of a Low Microphyll Vine Forest was sampled in January 1995 at Boyne Island, central Queensland. These dry rainforests resemble rainforests in having a relatively closed canopy and a high plant species diversity. They differ in that they have greater exposure to seasonal aridity. Three sampling techniques were used to ensure arthropods within all layers of the forest were sampled — pyrethrum fogging of the canopy, pitfall trapping of the ground fauna and malaise/intercept trapping . Comparisons of ordinal composition with samples of other types of Australian rainforests studied by Kitching et at. 1993 indicated that the dry rainforest on Boyne Island, while having a distinct ordinal composition, was most similar to the tropical rainforest .