Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
The distribution of insects, spiders, and mites in the air.
By Glick, P.A.
U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Technical Bulletin 673: 1-150., 1939
Cite: 1017088 with citation markup [cite:1017088]
Full PDF

Glick, P.A. 1939. The distribution of insects, spiders, and mites in the air. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Technical Bulletin 673: 1-150.

The discussion of the airplane collection of insects which is given m the following pages is based on the data collected during the years from August 1926 to October 1931, inclusive. During the 5 years of the work more than 1,007 hours were spent in the exposures of the collecting screens. The actual flying time, including the exposures of the screens, amounted to 1,538 hours, of which 150 hours were flown at night. A total of 1,358 separate flights were made, most of them m Louisiana, but 44 were made in Mexico.
In addition to the day collections at altitudes of from 200 to 5,000 feet, which netted 22,580 specimens, 2,204 insects were taken at other heights, from 20 to 100 feet and from 6,000 to 15,000 feet inclusive, (tables 1 and 2). In the night collections, at from 500 to 5,000 feet, 3,955 insects were taken (table 3). In all the data covers the collection of 28,739 specimens in Louisiana and 1,294 in Mexico.
In general, in the discussions the spiders and mites are counted with the insects.
From the number of minutes flown and the average speed of the several planes used, it is estimated that approximately 88,827 miles were flown in the actual exposure of the screens in Louisiana. If the flights are reckoned from taking off on a collecting trip until landing, a distance of six times the circumference of the earth, or more than 150,000 miles, was flown in collecting insects.