light traps

[jhimmel at connix.com]

I believe the term "over-kill" would apply here.  There are those, myself 
included, who dislike the use of "bug-zappers" because they do just what this 
type of collecting does.  Indiscriminate killing.

John
**************************
John Himmelman, CT USA
jhimmel at connix.com
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<---- Begin Forwarded Message ---->
Date: 2 Oct 97 03:05:44 GMT 
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Reply-To: bhac at bigpond.com
From: "Bart Hacobian" <bhac at bigpond.com>
To: LEPS-L at lists.yale.edu
Subject: light traps

There is a trend in Australia among some lepidopterists to use multiple
small, unattended, fluoro bucket-type light traps with poison (eg
trichlorethane) to collect moths, instead of light sheets. I know of some
collectors who use up to 10 poison traps each night when visiting a remote
collecting site. Is this also the case in other parts of the world? The
proponents usually justify their use in "economic" terms, along the lines
of higher collecting productivity (moths per collector-night).. Very
comforting. Personally, I can't justify the enormous "bycatch" problem, as
there are invariably hundreds of poisoned unwanted insects in each trap,
including common lep species which a light sheet collector will leave
alive. What is the attitude to this form of lep collecting elsewhere?

Bart Hacobian

bhac at bigpond.com.au



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