Hundreds of species of insects and spiders occur on Fire Island, from dragonflies to monarch butterflies to the ubiquitous mosquitoes. Ticks are locally superabundant from May to September.
Many of these insects are valuable that sustain natural ecosystems, helping to preserve the quality of human and all other species of life.
Odonates (dragonflies and damselflies) are considered by scientist to be excellent indicators of wetland ecosystem health and condition. An inventory of Odonata is one of the current NPS Inventory and Monitoring projects being conducted at Fire Island National Seashore.
Fire Island's beach and intertidal invertebrate communities, an important component of the ecosystem which serves as forage for shore birds, includes several species of insects. A recent survey found that:
Of the five dominant taxa collected along the bayside were three types of insects: Ephydridae (shore flies), Lasius neoniger (turfgrass ant), Muscidae (muscid flies).
Of the five dominant taxa collected along the oceanside two were the insects Ephydridae and Clivinia sp. (ground beetle).
Results of the study found the most abundant species in all collections (benthic core, wrack sight and pitfall trap) to be the tenebrionid beetle (Phaleria teastacea), the talitrid amphipod (Talorchestia longicornis), the ant (Lasius nenoiger), the anthicid beetle (Mecynotarsus candidus), homopterans and the planthopper (Delphacodes sp). The most common taxonomic groups were: Coleoptera, Diptera, Amphipoda, Hymenoptera.
