ya, I really should clean some of these up a bit. The July 17 '10 sample is especially dirty. I use BioQuip's bucket light trap, with ethal acetate as the killing agent, and sort it all out later. If I leave it out too late, then more moths tend to get in and bounce around. And on some nights there's these really anoying sticky leaf hoppers en mass. A light with a sheet would be more selective (and cleaner), but the catch-all trap is what better fits my time availability. And I'm sure I find beetles I wouldn't otherwise spot. Unlike Jeff and v, I see lots of things over 5mm and plenty of moths at a sheet light ;)

keeps me from using some of the popular collection methods such as flight intercept traps with drowning pans, UV/MV lights with killing buckets, yellow pan traps, pitfalls with propylene glycol or other drowning solutions, sticky traps, insecticide foggers, etc.

I've been reading Carlos Aguilar's "Methods for Catching Beetles," very poorly translated but loaded with good ideas, including the use of a variety of colors for pan traps. Of course he's a traditional "bring 'em back dead" guy so I have to modify his designs for live trapping.

For example I recently went shopping for plastic funnels in various colors: red, orange, yellow, blue, fuchsia, and purple. (I actually had better luck in stores than online.) I couldn't find purple or fuchsia funnels but I found a young child's bowling set with very lightweight plastic bowling pins that I can make into funnels, including in those two colors. With a funnel I can chute the visitor right on into a live holding container with a moist rag in the bottom to prevent dehydration. I intend to try them out this spring and summer in New Hampshire before I make the big move to Ecuador.

It'll be interesting to see which colors attract which beetles. This past Jan/Feb in Ecuador I noticed one Telephanus species (Silvanidae) seemed especially attracted to my orange wheelbarrow when I was out doing trail work. Often when I unloaded my equipment I would find one or two in the bottom. Flower visitors are likely attracted to the same colors as the blooms they prefer. I've noticed that Typocerus velutinus, a lepturine, likes to display on yellow-orange squash blossoms.

You might attract quite a few species by day with color traps, Tim, ones that are seldom drawn to lights. Also, using funnels, you may get very few lepidopterans, flies, and hymenopterans mixed with your beetles.

"Passive, long-term collecting" definintely fits my style currently. I've been meaning to get going more on pit-fall traps. Perhaps I'll try a few of these above ground colored versions.