Use of a modified light trap to improve catches of black beetle,Heteronychus arator(Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae), and black field cricket,Teleogryllus commodus(Orthoptera: Gryllidae)

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Abstract
A 2.3 m diameter portable swimming pool was placed beneath a conventional Robinson light trap to compare the efficiency of catch during studies of the flight behaviour of black beetle, Heteronychus arator (Fabricius). Use of the pool increased the catchment area of the trap by 103 times, resulting in a 4.6 times increase in the number of black beetle and a 58 times increase in the number of black field cricket, Teleogryllus commodus (Walker), caught. There was increased sensitivity in etection of flight at the lower activity extremes, so that the total number of evenings on which flight activity was recorded during individual flight seasons was increased by a factor of 1.4 for black beetle and 2.7 for black field cricket. The modified trap could also be useful in insect surveys, and flight monitoring or recapture studies of a variety of other insect species.

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