a whole lotta thrips
I have collected and counted 31,785 thrips on 472 3x5" sticky card traps since July 19th of last year. My research thrips of interest, Scirtothrips dorsalis, accounts for 84.04% of all captures. The next two species that account for the largest proportion of thrips collected during the year are Frankliniella schultzei, at 3.59% of all captures, and Gynaikothrips uzeli, who account for another 3.05% of all thrips trapped. I would suggest that this implies that S. dorsalis represents the predominant thrips species on my two host plots throughout the year.
Next week I will collect my final traps for this project, and with sixty weekly sampling periods, this experiment will be complete.
Obviously this project would have been improved if I had access to larger and more field plots from which to sample. This project could have been further improved if these additional sample plots had been from a broader geographic distribution both in south Florida and across the state. It might also have been more informative had it included samples taken from around additional host plants, and had it included an additional variable - measuring captures on traps at an increasing distance from certain host plots.
Officially, this was my "back-burner" project. I did not receive support or encouragement to continue or expand this project during its first three months, and once officially endorsed, it was suggested that I direct my enthusiasm for improving this experiment elsewhere. I was discouraged from modifying the experiment in order to achieve the improvements I have mentioned above.
This experiment is now one of the fundamental planks of my thesis.
Graduate school is all about realizing that you are in charge, and perhaps more fundamentally, that you probably do know what you are doing and where you should be going. Cast off self-doubt, and pursue reasonable research goals that are endorsed by your peers. Follow your heart. Most important of all?