Snap Traps

Two kinds of traps designed for quantitative sampling may be termed “snap traps.” It consists of a pair of wooden or plastic discs, slotted to the center so as to fit on a tree branch and connected to each other by a pair of rods. A cloth cylinder is affixed at one end to one of the discs and at the other end to a ring sliding on the rods.

After the cloth cylinder has been pulled to one end and has been secured in place, the ring is held by a pair of latches. When insects have settled on the branch, its leaves, or flowers, the latches are released by pulling on a string from a distance, and the trap is snapped shut by a pair of springs on the rods, capturing any insects present. One of the canopy traps operates in a similar fashion. When a remotely controlled latch is pulled, a spring-loaded canopy is snapped over an area of soil, and insects within the canopy are collected by suction or a vacuum device. This trap was designed for use in grasslands.