We aim to capture nocturnal flying insects (which can be potential prey for bats) and, therefore, we are going to use UV light traps.
We will sample three different habitats in Colombia: preserved savannas, riparian forest, and rice crops. Our idea is to sample the open area (savanna, rice fields) at the same time as the forest, and we are contemplating installing two light traps in each one of these habitats, with a separation of c. 100 m.
Is it appropriate to use two traps per habitat to get a good idea of insect diversity?
You can take some information of insects capturing related to your article....
Marker-Less Motion Capture of Insect Locomotion With Deep Neural Networks Pre-trained on Synthetic Videos
You need three traps, placed in representative areas in each ecosystem, so that you can obtain a measure of variation, such as SE. Random placement is ideal, but will not work if there are no insects nearby. Just as in seed traps, you will not catch a seed unless you place a trap below seeds under a tree lol :)
Hello Fabio; Do you know the attractive radius of your lights? You need to be sure that the lights sample only the intended area. How heterogeneous the savannah and riparian forests are? If they are heterogeneous, you'll need more lights that adequately sample that heterogeneity. Best regards, Jim Des Lauriers
Light traps, with or without ultraviolet light, attract certain insects. Light sources may include fluorescent lamps, mercury-vapor lamps, black lights or light-emitting diodes. Designs differ according to the behavior of the insects being targeted. Light traps are widely used to survey nocturnal moths. Total species richness and abundance of trapped moths may be influenced by several factors such as night temperature, humidity and lamp type. Grasshoppers and some beetles are attracted to lights at a long range but are repelled by it at short range. Farrow's light trap has a large base so that it captures insects that may otherwise fly away from regular light traps. Light traps can attract flying and terrestrial insects, and lights may be combined with other methods
- Badges
- Science topic