Lepidoptera collection of Hannu Saarenmaa

Study Extent

Any

Sampling

Diverse methods for collecting and observing have been used. Most data, however, is from light trapping throughout season in a fixed location. All Macrolepidoptera have been identified and counted. Absence can be inferred from lack of record. Microlepidoptera have been identified where possible, but their numbers are not necessarily quantitative, and lack of record does not mean absence.

Method steps

1. Light traps and bait traps of various kinds have been used. They have been checked at various intervals. Specimens have been preserved from some observations, and are included as separate occurrences, and linked to the observation. MachineObservation in basisOfRecord means use of traps, although a human has identified and counted the machine-killed individuals. These are mostly light traps that operate at night from dusk to dawn using a clock switch. They are visited at variable times, often only once a week.
   sampleSizeValue is the number of nights or days the trap has operated. I do also give hours but they are normally not used. sampleSizeUnit says “day” while it is really “night”. It might be more meaningful to use “hour” instead, which would properly take into account the fact that here in the north we have very short nights and consequently poor catches. For instance, if the length of night is 6 hours, and it runs for a week, we have effective catching time of 42 hours. Often the lamp goes on while there still is dusk and it is not attracting until one hour later. I should really use sunset/sunup times with some margin when sun is a few degrees below the horizon (so called nautical night). But I am not aware of any standard in moth monitoring schemes for how to represent this. organismQuantity is indivudualCount divided by sampleSizeValue. In any case, individualCount is there as the raw number, so the user can compute this as they please. samplingEffort is the number of collecting devices, i.e., traps. Usually just 1, but sometimes results of several devices have been combined for the event.

1. Lepidoptera
   rank: order

Worldwide