2026/05/26 by Ava Augustine, Cameron Duncan, Natasha Hirt +4 · 1 voice
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Plant and animal studies #Lepidoptera: Biology and Taxonomy #Botany and Geology in Latin America and Caribbean
paper · pdf · doi:10.18475/cjos.v56i1.a27
Global declines of insect populations illustrate the importance of effective and accurate sampling techniques. Blue, white, and yellow pan traps are widely used for measuring insect diversity, but the impact of alternative colours has been understudied. Additionally, the potential for insects from different geographic regions to show different responses to pan trap colour has not been investigated. Here, red, white, and yellow pan traps were tested for captured insect abundance and diversity in a secondary-growth rainforest in central Costa Rica. Yellow traps captured the highest abundance and diversity. Red and white traps captured lower but similar abundances and diversities. This deviates from previous findings from North America showing that red traps capture significantly lower diversity than white. Red was the only colour to attract representatives of Psocodea, and captured the highest number of Orthoptera. Further research is needed on the potentially variable efficacy of different trap colours in different parts of the world, as well as raising the question of why insects in these different areas might respond inconsistently to trap colours.