A rotary device was used for comparing the catches of mosquitoes by light traps. The species trapped were Aedes melanimon Dyar, Anopheles freeborni Aitken, and Culex tarsalis Coquillett. The variation arising from differences in traps was rarely significant while nightly variation was almost invariably significant. The heat produced by a 25-watt light bulb did not result in higher catches than when a cold bulb was used. Vertical or horizontal screens tended to reduce the numbers of mosquitoes caught, the vertical screens having the greater effect. Trap color had little effect on catch. Air movement by the fan also had little effect on the catch although the range of air movements studied was not great. The catch was directly related to light intensity of the source. Evidence is presented that background illumination interferes with the discrimination of light intensities by mosquitoes. The bearing of these factors on the total amount of variation in a trapping program is discussed.
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Barr et al. (1963) studied this question.