I would like to observe the behavior of some insects at night using infrared light, but I fear that infrared attracts insects and thus biases observations. Has anybody used this method?
I have used infrared lights to study moth behavior. Infrared light did not attract the moths, but I cannot say with certainty whether or not their behavior was affected another way (repelling, decreased activity, etc).
Hi. I worked on carabid beetles last year for an internship, I used infrared camera to watch their behavior (first in fields and then in the lab). I think that it doesn't attract or affraid the insects.
You can see this article if you want further informations about that :
Allema A.B., Rossing W.H., van der Werf W., Heusinkveld B.G., Bukovinszky T., Steingröver E. & van Lenteren J.C., 2012. Effect of light quality on movement of Pterostichus melanarius (Coleoptera: Carabidae). Journal of Applied Entomology, 136: 793-800.
Thank you very much! Kévin, I am really interested by your research. I hardly found any study investigating insects with video cameras in the field. May I ask you some further information about the material you used and if you would have any indications of potential pitfalls I should be aware of?
Best
I think you can do some pre-test on your material.
Maybe just provide infrared conditions to see the behavior difference.
Or to try "electrophysiological techniques" on their compound eyes.
Then you could know if the insect really see the infrared.
(But I am not sure weather they could detect infrared by other organs than eyes)
Thank Green. I will do some pre-tests anyway, but it is always useful to know from other's experience. I think that insects have different sensors than eyes that may detect IR. What did you mean with electrophysiological techniques?
That is a technique to test if an insect have neuron response to some stimulation.
Usually we make a loop on the sample, and give stimulation (like certain wave length infrared).
Then you can use computer to record its neuron response.
One of my teacher doctor Yang form NTU can tell you more detail about this technique.
Hi Valérie,
I work on the aggregation behavior of necrophagous Dipteran larvae. These species do not differ in the red. I used infrared camera in some experiments and also classical camera but I light individuals with a red light.
If you want more details on electrophysiological techniques, you can have some answer in this paper http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022191010001885.
Hi, thank you very much, that's a very useful information. Would you mind giving me some more details on the camera you used in your experiments? Best
Concerning infrared cameras, I used this one http://www.kamatec.fr/pack-de-videosurveillance-1/pack-videosurveillance-1-a-4-cameras/pack-video-start-II-4-cameras-2310.html and for classical camera I used this one http://products.boschsecurity.be/fr/BE/products/bxp/SKU199140122727021600716506891-CATMf730029e214b13d3da55e3e98e088093.
I hope it will help you for your experiments.
Hello, Valérie.
I have been studying the physiology and sensory perception of insects for some time, and some work is already being published, I've been working with neurophysiology, thermoregulation and energy metabolism with diverse groups of insects. I have experience in the use of infrared cameras from FLIR Systems. If I can help you with something, please contact me
Regards
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