Although suction sampling is the primary method for investigating arthropod communities in rice fields, the convenience of methods has gradually become an increasingly important factor to consider when choosing survey sampling methods in response to the growing demand for large-scale surveys and sampling. Consequently, a growing number of researchers have begun to prefer using the sweeping method. Nevertheless, there is a lack of research that directly compares the effectiveness of sweep netting and suction methods in investigations. In order to establish a reference for sampling methods in research on agricultural biodiversity and insect ecology, this article compared two survey methods using sampling data from the Jianghan Plain rice region over three consecutive years (2018–2020). The comparison focused on collection preferences for functional traits, collection efficiency of endemic species, and various parameters and dynamic changes reflecting community diversity. The results showed that there was no difference in the collection preferences of the two methods for three functional traits: body size, migration ability, and vertical distribution. The compositions of common classes in the arthropod communities collected by the two sampling methods were highly similar. The larger sampling area of the sweep netting method allowed for a more comprehensive representation of species richness (P<0.05). Although the two methods demonstrated consistent reflection of arthropod community indices and the abundance trends of key groups (such as parasitic wasps, spiders, and rice planthoppers), there were significant differences in the temporal trends of abundance between the two when further dividing spiders into hunting and web-forming types (P<0.05). The abundance of the two types of spiders obtained through the suction sampling method showed a consistent decline throughout the survey period. In contrast, the sweep netting method exhibited a fluctuating pattern, initially declining and then increasing, with a turning point observed at the booting stage. In conclusion, the sweep netting method is a comprehensive and accurate survey sampling method for the study of the arthropod community in rice fields. It is particularly advantageous in comparison to the suction sampling method in the context of large-scale investigations of arthropod communities in rice fields.