Sugaring for moths, one of the oldest collecting methods, involves the use of a specially prepared bait in which some form of sugar is an essential component.
The bait may be refined or brown sugar, molasses, or sirup. Such substances often are mixed with stale beer, fermented peaches, bananas, or some other fruit- there is no standard formula. Each lepidopterist has his or her own favorite recipe.
One particularly satisfactory recipe uses fresh, ripe peaches; culls or windfalls are suitable. Remove the seeds but not the skins, mash the fruit, then place it in a 4-liter (1-gal) or larger container of plastic, glass, stainless steel, enamelware, or crockery with a snugly fitting but not tight cover. Avoid using metal containers that may rust or corrode. Fill each container only onehalf to two-thirds full to allow space for expansion. Add about a cup of sugar and place in a moderately warm place for the mixture to ferment. The bubbling fermentation reaction should start in a day or so and may continue for 2 weeks or more, depending on the temperature. During this time, check the fermentation every day or every other day and add sugar until fermentation appears to have subsided completely. As the added sugar is converted to alcohol, the growth of yeast slows and eventually ceases.
After fermentation ceases, the bait should remain stable and should then be kept in tightly sealed containers to prevent contamination and evaporation. If the mixture is allowed to run low in sugar during the fermentation process, vinegar will be produced instead of alcohol. It is therefore important to smell the bait periodically and to add plenty of sugar to avoid this. The amount of sugar consumed will be surprising, usually over 0.4 kg per liter (3.3 lb per gal). The bait should have a sweet, fruity, winelike fragrance. A trace of vinegar is not objectionable but is better avoided. Canned fruit, such as applesauce, may also be used to make the bait, but inasmuch as such products are completely sterile, a small amount of yeast must be added to start fermentation. Although the bait may seem troublesome to prepare, it keeps for years and is thus available at any time, even when fruit is not in season.
Immediately before use, the bait may be mixed with 30 to 50 percent molasses or brown sugar or a mixture of these. This thickens the bait so that it will not dry out so quickly, and it makes the supply last longer.
The best time to set out the sugar bait is in the early evening before dark. It may be applied with a paint brush in streaks on tree trunks, fenceposts, or other surfaces. Choose a definite route, such as along a trail or along the edge of a field, so that later you can follow it in the dark with a lantern or flashlight. Experienced collectors learn to approach the patches of bait stealthily with a light in one hand and a killing jar in the other to catch the moths before they are frightened off. Some collectors prefer to wear a headlamp, leaving both hands free. Although some moths will fly away and be lost, a net usually is regarded as an unnecessary encumbrance, because moths can be directed rather easily into the jar. Sugaring is an especially useful way to collect noctuid moths, and the bait applied in the evening often will attract various diurnal insects on the following days. The peach bait previously described has been used in butterfly traps with spectacular results. However, collecting with baits is notoriously unpredictable, being extremely productive on one occasion and disappointing on another, under apparently identical conditions.
1.11.1 Baiting With Feces.
Animal and human feces attract many insects. A simple but effective method of collecting such insects is to place fresh feces on a piece of paper on the ground and wait a few minutes. When a sufficient number of insects have arrived, a net with its bag held upward can be brought carefully over the bait about 1 meter above it. This will not disturb the insects, nor will they be greatly disturbed when the net is lowered gently about two- thirds of the distance to the bait. At this point, the net should be quickly lowered until its rim strikes the paper. The insects, mostly flies, will rise into the net, which may then be lifted a short distance above the bait and quickly swung sideways, capturing the insects in the bottom of the bag. In about half an hour, many flies can be caught, virtually all that have come to the bait. Because of this, the 'baiting with feces' method may be used for quantitative studies (see Steyskal 1957).
Feces are most attractive to insects during the first hour after deposition, but insects coming for a more extended period may be captured by placing a canopy trap over the feces or by using the feces with the cereal dish trap (see p. 12). Emergence traps placed over old feces will capture adult insects emerging from immature forms feeding there. The same methods also may be used with other baits, such as decaying fruit, small carcasses, and a wide variety of other substances.
1.11.2 The Oatmeal Trail
Hubbell (1956) showed that dry oatmeal scattered along a path will attract such insects as crickets, camel crickets, cockroaches, and ants. Some of these insects feed only at night and may be hand-collected by flashlight or by light from a headlamp. A killing bottle is used, and the specimens are collected with fingers, an aspirator, or a net.
1.11.3 Pheromones and Other Attractants
Substances naturally produced by insects to attract others of their own kind are known as pheromones. They are often used in traps to aid in controlling pest species. Most pheromones are highly specific, attracting only one species or a group of closely related species. "Spanish Fly" (cantharidin) has recently come into use as an extremely effective attractant for various beetles, such as pedilids, and bugs, such as bryocerines. Female specimens of certain insects, such as cicadas and silkworm moths, may be placed alive in a trap and used as a bait with their pheromones and the sounds they produce attracting males. Female saturniids (silkworm moth) may be used to attract males which may come from great distances. The pheromones of sesiid moths are commercially available and can be attached to the collector's net or hung over a dish with ethylene glycol.
Host animals likewise may be used as bait for various bloodsucking insects, with or without constructed traps. Carbon dioxide in the form of "Dry Ice," cylinder gas, or marble chips treated with an acid such as vinegar serves as an attractant for certain insects and has been very successful in attracting horse flies to Malaise and Manitoba traps.
1.11.4 - Sounds, etc.
Sounds are produced by many insects to attract others of their own kind. These sounds are very specific in pitch, tempo, and duration. Recordings of such sounds, played at the proper volume, have been effective in luring grasshoppers, crickets, and other kinds of insects.
Hesperiid moths (skippers) have been shown to be attracted to small pieces of wetted paper placed on vegetation (Lamas et al., 1993).
References for attractants: General-Acree et al. 1968; Atkins 1957; Beavers et al 1972; Beroza 1970, 1972; Beroza & Green 1963; Bram 1978; Carestia & Savage 1967; Clinch 1971; Coffey 1966; Debolt et al. 1975; DeJong 1967; Fahy 1972; Golding 1941; Greenslade 1964; Hocking 1963; Howell 1980; Hubbell 1956; Jacobson & Beroza 1964; Laird 1981; Lee et al. 1982; LeSage & Harrison 1979; Luff 1975; Macleod & Donnelly 1956; Mason 1963; Morris & DeFoliart 1969; Nakagawa et al. 1971; Newhouse et al. 1966; Pinniger 1975; Rennison & Robertson 1959; Roberts 1972; Sanders & Dobson 1966; Shorey & McKelvey 1977; Steyskal 1957; Strenzke 1966; Walsh 1933; Wellso & Fischer 1971; Wilton 1963; carbon dioxide-Blume et al. 1972; Carestis & Savage 1967; Davidson & Swan 1933; Debolt et al. 1975; Evans 1975; Fahy 1972; Gillies & Snow 1967; Hoy 1970; Kato et al. 1966; Knox & Hays 1972; Morris & DeFoliart 1969; Newhouse et al. 1966; Reeves 1951, 1953; Rennison & Robertson 1959; Roberts 1972; Snoddy & Hays 1966; Stryker & Young 1970; Takeda et al. 1962; Whitsel & Schoeppner 1965; Wilson et al. 1972; pheromones-Beaudry 1954; Bellamy & Reeves 1952; Beroza et al. 1974; Birch 1974; Campion 1972; Campion et al. 1974; Goonewardene et al. 1973; Hathaway 1981; Holbrook & Beroza 1960; Howell 1980; Howland et al 1969; Jacobson 1972; Jacobson & Beroza 1964; Mitchell et al. 1972; Neal 1979; Peacock & Cuthbert 1975; Shorey 1973; Shorey & McKelvey 1977; Sparks et al. 1980; Steck & Bailey 1978; Weatherston 1976; sound-Belton 1962; Cade 1975.
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