Our last Flying Insect survey of the year (led by Ron Rutowski) was conducted in the evening using Light Trapping. Sangmi Lee, manager, and 3 students (Andrew Jansen, Michael Schillingburg and Naomi Pier) from the Nico Franz entomology lab at ASU led us into the Preserve and set up two locations to trap flying insects. Two different light sources were used. Mercury Vapor and Black Light. It was interesting to learn that each attracted different insects!

It was a slow night for insects but it was so much fun and we did get to observe a few interesting species including a Praying Mantis and a weird looking cricket. The majority of flying visitors were moths and other extremely small flying insects. Some of the moths were scooped into plastic containers easily but the tiny ones were collected using a glass vial aspirator…..a tool I had never seen. We were all given the opportunity to try it and only a few did including a child who came with his parents. I was happy just taking photos 🙂 I quickly learned I didn’t have nearly enough light but I learned from the experience and will be prepared for when we do it again (approx May).

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