314 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY • [Vol. 3 



A UNIQUE INSECT CATCHING MACHINE 



By F. C. BisHOPP, U. 8. Bureau of Entomology, Dallas, Texas^ 



The following article is published not because the observations are 

 thought to have any particular value or that the machine described 

 can be utilized practically in the control of the bollworm, but to call 

 attention to a rather unusual digression in mechanical insect destroy- 

 ing devices and with the hope that the idea involved may be sugges- 

 tive to workers in other entomological fields. 



The machine illustrated herewith is the result of the ingenuity of 

 a progressive Ellis County (Texas) farmer in his efforts to discover 

 a method of controlling the bollworm {Heliothis obsoleta Fabr.) on 

 cotton. Unlike most of the machines devised for use against the boll- 

 worm this one is designed to capture the adult moths instead of the 

 larvffi. While lights are employed to concentrate and destroy the 

 moths, the success of the apparatus is not dependent upon the normal 

 attraction of the moths to light. The machine was evolved by Mr. 

 T. A. Sissom, who is the inventor, from an observation made by him 

 upon the habits of flight of the moths when disturbed at night. The 

 writer has also observed that the majority of the moths when startled 

 at night fly directly upward for several feet, apparently in an effort 

 to avoid striking the cotton plants or other objects. 



The machine consists of a framework mounted on four wheels. 

 The frame is 36 feet wide in front, 18 feet wide at the back and 28 

 feet from the front to the back. This frame, except at the back, is 

 covered with domestic, which can easily be put on or removed. The 

 back is screened in. 



The machine is pulled by a pair of horses or mules which are 

 hitched between the fore and hind wheels under the canvas, the 

 driver and operator sitting immediately behind the team. The guid- 

 ing is done by simply rotating a wheel which controls the angle of the 

 front axle. 



The front part of the canvas extends down quite close to the cotton 

 but not low enough to strike the plants and thus disturb the moths. 

 Agitators in the form of sacks containing some heavy object, are 

 attached to the frame a few feet back from the front edge of the 

 canvas. These disturb the moths which fly up, strike the canvas and 

 gradually drift toward the three lights at the back of the machine, 

 as the apparatus moves forward. The back part of the machine has 

 a floor high enough to pass over the cotton. This prevents the down- 



^ Published by permission of the chief of the Bureau of Entomology. 



