A Modified Canopy Trap for Collecting Tabanidae (Diptera)

A low cost, portable, compact, highly efficient trap was needed for flight activity studies to determine the efficacy of control programs and to determine the distribution of Tabanidae in South Carolina. A trap was devised which incorporated some features already described in the literature. This trap uses a canopy like that described by Catts (1970, Mosquito News 30 : 473–74) and is equipped with a no-return device like that used by Thompson (1969, Ann. Ent. Soc. Amer. 62 : 50–57). The target used under the trap consisted of a shiny black sphere as recommended by Thorsteinson et al. (1965, Ent. Exp. Appl. 8 : 189–92) in their “Manitoba Fly Trap.” An assembled trap is shown in fig. 1C Traps of this design served as objective samplers of tabanid activity within their range and were not dependent upon chemicals as attractants. They have been used in remote areas where sampling by other means might be impossible for extended lengths of time. These traps have been used successfully in parks and on golf courses where they were in constant view of the public and were not esthetically objectionable to visitors. In many cases, they generated much interest in entomological techniques in general and tabanid research in particular.