UV-LEDs outperform actinics for standalone moth monitoring

Abstract

With the increasing awareness of biodiversity loss, the demand for standardized monitoring is also growing. Moths are a species rich group and can easily be monitored with traps. However the traps have to be portable to cover remote areas. The disadvantage of the commonly used Heath trap are heavy batteries and the unreliable actinic is not very energy efficient. Therefore we invented a new, portable LED trap which reliable switch on and is more energy efficient. In this study, we compared the number of attracted individuals and moth species between the standard Heath trap and a 2835 LED-strip. We also tested the aging effect after 1000 and 2000 h runtime to rule out monitoring the deterioration of the LED and compared the new 2835 strip with a brighter 5050 LED-strip. The 2835 LED attracts on average 2.3 times more moths compared to the Heath trap. This is partly caused by the energy inefficiency of the actinic whereby it only runs 2/3 of the night compared to the whole night with the 2835 LED, emphasizing energy efficiency as big advantage of LED. No difference in the total number of individuals was found after 1000 and 2000 h runtime compared to new LEDs. The 5050 LEDs attracted on average 2.0 more moths compared to the 2835 LEDs, suggesting this LED as alternative for relatively species poor regions. Implications for insect conservation The LedTrap can be used everywhere within a standardised monitoring scheme or within moth related experiments, resulting in a better understanding of their trends and preferences, which contributes to their conservation.

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