Light trap in Texas

The weather is warming up fast, and it was raining last weekend so Dustin and I decided to set up the light trap at his backyard last Sunday. First was to find a good collection spot. A clearing with river at the back provides a good light trap area so we started to move the set up there.







Doesn't take very long to set it up. ALways good to do that before sun set.



Almost there.... found out the mercury light holder failed to hold the bulb bummer.... White blacklight working well though thank god



Sun is setting fast so decided to hang the mercury vapor bulb instead (less effective). Dustin chiling out after having some tough time getting his dog back



While waiting for the sun to set we found this assassin.



Our first visitors to the light trap were load of scarab beetles



and some diving beetles



Moths starting to show up next... but we were waiting for some nice size moths



To be continue...........

Wow, I've never seen this. You know, until I started this mantis thing... I never knew there was such a DEEP hobby for insect collecting. I mean sure.. typical turantula and scorpion collectors but... beetles, mantids, ROACHES lol... the list is endless. Very cool little world I've found here

That big brown bug with the white head looks really cute (the one that seemed to be attracted to the light trap before you even got it all set up!) . ^_^

haha thats a nice idea.

I remember you doing this before Yen. Looking forward to more.

Yen, its gonna be fun. but I dont see me chair?

lol I like how theres a pic of my dog walking towards the pond then one of me exhausted after carrying her out. I cant wait to see the rest of the pics, we saw quite a few cool bugs that night.

LectricBlueyes said:

Wow, I've never seen this. You know, until I started this mantis thing... I never knew there was such a DEEP hobby for insect collecting. I mean sure.. typical turantula and scorpion collectors but... beetles, mantids, ROACHES lol... the list is endless. Very cool little world I've found here

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Is a cool little world for a small community of people that's right but usually i am treated as a freak, weirdo, or even pshyco when curios people see a mid-age guy setting up light trap in the wild . But in this case it was Dustin's backyard so i was safe from all the look, but only Dustin's dog and horse

Katnapper said:

That big brown bug with the white head looks really cute (the one that seemed to be attracted to the light trap before you even got it all set up!) .

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hmmm which one? some bugs do get attracted pretty quite even before sun set.

whamslam3 said:

haha thats a nice idea.

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Thanks. I love new ideas on making bug traps.

Rick said:

I remember you doing this before Yen. Looking forward to more.

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there will be more i am uploading more pics as i type right now.

hibiscusmile said:

Yen, its gonna be fun. but I dont see me chair?

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No problem i have extra chairs Come down to Texas i am sure it is much warmer than Ohio right now

Frack said:

lol I like how theres a pic of my dog walking towards the pond then one of me exhausted after carrying her out. I cant wait to see the rest of the pics, we saw quite a few cool bugs that night.

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ha ha! Gypsie right? (spelling?) Thanks for letting me use your backyard Dustin. I am sure we will see more bugs next month when the weather really warm up.

Now here are more pics for the bugs........

Dustin released some chinese mantis nymphs on the white sheet. Some gets to "work" immediately. This one is getting ready to jump on a small bug attracted by light.



At the beginning, especially before sun set, we saw mostly mosquitoes and flies. this is a type of fly i think





Then more moth started to show up





A large moth finally, right underneath the blacklight, has a broken left wing.





More bugs on the white sheet



Some nice moths starting to show up as the night progress

Katnapper said:

That big brown bug with the white head looks really cute (the one that seemed to be attracted to the light trap before you even got it all set up!) . ^_^

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Yeah; that's Quasimantis doggus. They're attracted to food, kids, other Q., doggus, balls, more food, Q. cattus and ponds.

PhilinYuma said:

Yeah; that's Quasimantis doggus. They're attracted to food, kids, other Q., doggus, balls, more food, Q. cattus and ponds.

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By now it is completely dark and the set up is starting to work



More moths... must be the season for these





When all of the sudden there was a huge moth heading straight to the sheet. it bumped on a few things (including Dustin and I) before landing on the ground.





We tried to help...



But don't think it is going to work.. poor thing



Some kind of parasitic wasps?

Some of the mantis we released made good photographing subject

Can you find where the mantis is?



This mantis is too greedy!



this one is trying to get a ride from the big moth



A common food for mantis.... the large black cricket also made it



Even a spider trying to snatch a few easy meals



More moths of all kind

Guess the highlight of the day is the mantidfly! Guess they are attracted to light too. It didn't land on the sheet but the brick used to provide weight on the set up. Ha!





A weird looking long neck weevil



and a huge diving beetle?



More beetles



I saw tiny devil horn on this beetle ha!



A lady bug and grasshopper nymph join the club too





Colorful one



hmmm... no idea

PhilinYuma said:

Yeah; that's Quasimantis doggus. They're attracted to food, kids, other Q., doggus, balls, more food, Q. cattus and ponds.

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:lol: Love it!!! Very cute Q. doggus!

Neat idea Yen and Dustin. And it looks like you both had an enjoyable evening attracting bugs! That big moth looks similar to a Sphinx moth I raised from a caterpillar I found in the Fall of 2007. I overwintered him in a critter keeper in the garage, and he became a White Lined Sphinx moth late last Spring. They must not be too smart about running into things. After I took some pics of him in the Critter Keeper, I released him. He flew up and over the roof of the house, then came back over, turned and immediately crashed straight into the side of the house. :huh:

Few type of large moths started to show up as it gets to about 9:30 PM

This one hang on to the weight



Another large moth



This one looks very aerodynamic as Dustin said It reminds me of the air craft F-22



Few types of diving beetles



More moths... by now we must have counted dozen different type









This one decided to hand on my shirt



Another wasp?



By then it was getting cold, the temperature drop fast to below 60s at around 10PM and since i need to work early the next day we decided to stop here. I brought back only two bugs for my macro photographing. The long neck weevil and mantidfly. i am sure there will be a lot more bugs around July-August.

Very cool! I find it interesting I see most of those insects here as well.

Please do post your mantidfly pictures......one of the coolest insects around IMO. To bad non live out here <_<

Rick said:

Very cool! I find it interesting I see most of those insects here as well.

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Thanks Rick.

yeatzee said:

Please do post your mantidfly pictures......one of the coolest insects around IMO. To bad non live out here <_<

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Yep i took some shot of the long neck weevil bug and mantidfly.

here are the weevil







The mantidfly escaped couple of times and one time it flew straight to the halogen light. I only took a few pics and let the mantidfly free afterwards.

For some reason, there is a small white thread stick to the mantidfly antenna grrrr... kind of spoil the pic







Also caught couple of carpenter queen ants (Componatus discolor?) from the first night hunt there



Put them in a vinyl tube with a drop of brown sugar. They love it!



One decided to lay eggs too close to the brown sugar drop i think the eggs drown bummer!! i am sure she will lay more.

Rick, I agree, we have a lot of them in ohio too. Yen, hope u guys had great fun, I think u took the best two back with you!

Some nice finds there mate

The mantidfly is very cool

Gives me ideas of trying this down the village nature reserve