study setup
For a study on whether semi-natural field borders provide winter refuge for beneficial insect predators and parasitoids, researchers set up 20 soil emergence tents—10 in the field, 10 in the border—on each of five certified organic fields in Illinois that had grown soybeans the previous year. The emergence tents captured overwintering arthropods as they emerged. All of the fields had borders containing a mix of grasses and sundry herbaceous flowering plants. The tents went out in mid-March, 2018, and the scientists collected their gleanings every two weeks until the end of April. (Image originally published in Clem and Harmon-Threatt 2021, Journal of Insect Science)