light traps

[lday at iquest.net]

>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. 

An acquaintance here (midwest USA) uses something like this, only with
cyanide.  In his case the goal is to collect ALL the avail spp
of moths at a site in order to learn what the local habitat supports, 
as a way to get an idea whether it is a diverse habitat.  In this case 
there are no "non-target" species.  If you need a snapshot of moth
diversity with limited personnel, this seems like a good way.  However
the goal is not collecting for its own sake.

Liz Day

LDAY at iquest.net 
Indianapolis, Indiana, central USA, 40 N latitude, zone 5.
Home of "Fred", the oldest living regal moth pupa.
http://www.iquest.net/~lday