Quantitative and qualitative study of arthopods in herbaceous vegetation of Spata, Greece

Arthropods, potential prey animals for aves, are very important inside the airfields, because they could attract birds and create problems, like bird strikes, in flight safety. For that reason, a project has been carried out in Athens International Airport “Eleftherios Venizelos” aiming at recording the arthropod species inside the airfield, which will become bird’s prey. After samplings using pitt fall traps and net sampling the results showed that the most important arthropod species were Orthoptera (fam. Tettigoniidae and Acrididae), Coleoptera (fam. Tenebrionidae, Carabidae, Silphidae, Staphylinidae), Isopoda and Aranae, with population densities highest during the spring. The most serious problem was Orthoptera, which attracted seagulls even nearby the main runways, both by their size and movement.