A quantitative sampling method for Oncomelania quadrasi by filter paper.

Abstract

Filter paper was found to attract Oncomelania quadrasi in waters the same way as fallen dried banana leaves, although less number of other species of snails was collected on the former than on the latter. Snails were collected in limited areas using a tube (85 cm2 area at cross-section) and a filter paper (20 X 20 CM) samplers. The sheet of filter paper was placed close to the spot where a tube sample was taken, and recovered after 24 hours. At each sampling, 30 samples were taken by each method in an area and sampling was made four times. The correlation of the number of snails collected by the tube and that by filter paper was studied. The ratio of the snail counts by the tube sampler to those by the filter paper was 1.18. A loose correlation was observed between snail counts of both methods as shown by the correlation coefficient r = 0.6502. The formulas for the regression line were Y = 0.77 X + 1.6 and X = 0.55 Y + 1.35 for 3 experiments where Y is the number of snails collected by tube sampling and X is the number of snails collected in the sheet of filter paper. The type of snail distribution was studied in the 30 samples taken by each method and this was observed to be nearly the same in both sampling methods. All sampling data were found to fit the negative binomial distribution with the values of the constant k varying very much from 0.5775 to 5.9186 in (q -- p)-k. In each experiment, the constant k was always larger in tube sampling than in filter paper sampling. This indicates that the uneven distribution of snails on the soil surface becomes more conspicuous by the filter paper sampling.