Luminance is the amount of reflected light on a given environment. Artificial high (or low) luminance (or illumination??) has any effect on the capture of nocturnal flying insects with light traps? Is it true that high luminance/illumination attracts (disorient) more nocturnal insetcs?
Hello @Francinaldo,
Aritifical light pollution near natural/forested areas does have a huge impact on attraction of insects to your own light trap. I work mainly on Moths and have observed that when I set my screen using a 400W Mercury vapor lamp in an area where there are other halogen lamps being used, they tend to attract a lot of moths towards them and on days when those areas are dark, I get better results. Also, effects of other lights acting as a competition for your trap can be seen even if a small CFL bulb is left on, near the field site. Of course these can vary depending on the moonlight too, since that is a factor to be considered too. I have not worked on this extensively hence sharing some of my personal experiences, hope this helps.
Also, please do check out Travis Longcore's work on light pollution, I highly recommend it. It will take you to a lot of other useful links too- https://travislongcore.net/category/research/light-pollution/
Cheers!
Hello @ Francinaldo:
Insects can perceive light in the 300-650 nm range, but prefer light that is between 300-420 nm which includes UV light. For coleoptera, black light is more effective. For Lepidoptera white light and UV light work best. The use of mercury vapor lamps are useful for all kinds of nocturnal insects. The location of the trap is important to attract insects, it is more effective if it is near a site with natural forest, than a trap placed in the middle of a pasture in an open place. When there is a full moon the attraction decreases a lot, it is better on nights without a full moon to capture nocturnal insects. Of course, no research effort on biodiversity inventories currently in the Brazilian Amazon is going to give any positive results with the deforestation and burning of forests that are currently taking place in that country, it is a shame. If you are interested in the conservation of the Amazon rainforest please follow this discussion:
https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_is_your_opinion_about_the_policies_of_deforestation_promoted_by_the_goverments_of_Brazil_and_Bolivia_in_the_Amazon_rainforest
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