DIY - How to fabricate an automatic-capture insect trap collection chamber.

[vabrou]

This pictorial illustrates our stationary automatic light trap wooden collecting chambers we designed, fabricated, and operated successively and continuously 365-366 days for each of the past (55 years) 1969 to 2024. We illustrate our successful design with annotated explanations and photographs of actual collecting chambers used in field work across the state of Louisiana. This is a 100% Kill collection chamber which was designed to not only operate without the presence of humans, and capture/dispatch huge quantities of insects (hundreds of thousands to millions daily), but all in pristine condition. Nearly all of our ~500 insect traps of all types and purposes operate automatically using NaCn as a killing agent. We have truly captured several billions of insects in the state of Louisiana, USA. The end result of this lifetime project includes the discovery of over 400 species of moths new to science, and documents ~3,000 species of just lepidoptera new to the state of Louisiana, and thousands of additional species of insects of other orders, all newly reported for the first time for the state of Louisiana. For example, we have personally captured around 200,000 specimens of adult Louisiana Sphingidae, around 200,000 specimens of adult Louisiana Saturnidae, and around 400,000 specimens of adult Louisiana Sesiidae, on and on

Why? No one anywhere in the world has documented in the scientific records operating hundreds of insect traps non-stop 24-hours every day/night continuously for 55 years. At this point, we (Vernon A. Brou Jr and Charlotte D. Brou) have officially donated far in excess of 348,829 Louisiana insects to museums in the United States alone for which we have independent written appraisals. Additionally we have placed ~700,000 additional specimens of Louisiana insects in museums and private research collections in states and countries in/out of the USA and across the world. Our specimens can be found in this short list of museums: Louisiana State Arthropod Museum (LSAM), Florida State Collection of Arthropods (FSCA), American Museum of Natural History(AMNH), National Museum of Natural History (NMNH/Smithsonian), Los Angeles County Museum (LACM), McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, Carnegie Museum, Prague Museum, Canadian National Collection (CNC), The Natural History Museum-London (NHM), Mississippi Entomological Museum (MEM), and many others worldwide. Our current personal scientific research master collection of Louisiana insects (the best of the best) is located at our home in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana contains an additional (~500,000) specimens (primarily lepidoptera, and some coleoptera), and this largest ever collection of Louisiana insect is destined for eventual placement in the Louisiana State Arthropod Museum where we have already placed around 1/4 million insect specimens over the past half century. Additionally, we have placed several hundreds of thousands of insects (especially Lepidoptera) in major private research collections throughout the world.

The results of our still ongoing lifetime's entomological work has been documented so far in 474 entomological print publications which most all are freely accessible across the world via the world wide web as pdfs. Our largest publication covered the daily documentation of Hawkmoths of Louisiana, a 30 consecutive year study of the Sphingidae of Louisiana, which also resulted in the discovery of two new sphingid species, Lapara phaeobrachycerous Brou, and Lapara abita Brou and Brou, both described. This monumental investigation involved the Sphingidae of Louisiana, covered the years (1970-1999) in which we reported capturing 83,889 wild adult Sphingidae specimens representing 46 species within the state of Louisiana.

Free link: https://www.academia.edu/124916382/Auto ... _pictorial

Additionally, 315 of our print published studies, including new species descriptions, generic revisions, and detailed species accounts, are available at one freely accessible link: https://independent.academia.edu/VernonAntoineBrouJr

[58chevy]

Vernon, if there were a Nobel Prize for Entomology, you & Charlotte would be the recipients. Outstanding work that will probably never be repeated. I hope you continue to post on this website.