Efficacy of the Assateague insect trap in collecting mosquitoes and biting flies in a Maryland salt marsh

Constructional details are given of the Assateague insect trap, which was designed in 1971 for collecting small Diptera. The trap is a cube with 30-cm sides and wooden top and bottom faces. The sides are of aluminium gauze, and each has a central entrance cone of the same material. One edge of one side is permanently attached, and the other edges are affixed by strips of Velcro fastener to allow easy access to the interior. A 6-W blacklight blue fluorescent lamp is situated vertically in the centre of the trap, opposite the internal openings of the cones. Three groups of 8 traps were operated in salt marshes and sand dunes on Assateague I., Maryland, from July to September 1971. During that time, the lamps were alight 24 h/day. Five species of Culicids, among which females greatly predominated, four of Tabanids and one Muscid (Stomoxys calcitrans (L.)) were caught. The most numerous Culicids were Aedes sollicitans (Wlk.) (367 males and 6090 females), A. taeniorhynchus (Wied.) (12 and 2007), and A. vexans (Mg.) (45 and 104). The most numerous Tabanids were Tabanus lineola F. (4622 and 360), T. nigrovittatus Macq. (16 and 120) and Chrysops atlanticus Pechuman (30 and 111). In June-August 1972, groups of traps were operated for different periods of the day on the same island. The Culicids collected included A. sollicitans (78 males and 674 females), A. taeniorhynchus (3 and 131), A. cantator (Coq.) (3 and 103) and A. vexans (87 and 4), and the Tabanids included T. lineola (1881 and 158), T. nigrovittatus (5 and 47) and C. atlanticus (19 and 58). Most captures were made between dusk and dawn; the majority of female Culicids and male Tabanids were caught between midnight and dawn.