INTRODUCTION 



T. C. Byerly 1 



In the development of its research program, the Agricultural Research Service has 

 placed emphasis on basic research. A few problems have been segregated in some 1 5 or 

 16 areas -wherein a pioneering research effort has been recognized. 



It is the ARS policy to encourage and on occasion to insist upon the formation of 

 teams of workers competent in different disciplines to undertake the solution of a par- 

 ticular problem. The problem of light traps was chosen for consideration for several 

 reasons. First of all, the light response of insects has been recognized since the first 

 moth flew into the first flame. Manypeople have tried to apply usefully the photo response 

 of insects. In spite of these efforts, the response has not been sufficiently effective to 

 make light traps the method of choice for insect control generally or until recently for 

 survey methods. It is puzzling that this should be true. It appears that there has been no 

 systematic study of the total range of intensities and of wavelengths with respect to any 

 one insect under any one set of circumstances or with respect to any one insect under 

 systematic variations of environment, such as temperature, humidity, and food supply. 

 It should be possible to define rigorously some of the physical variables and to organize 

 a team project that would obtain the basic quantitative data necessary for the evaluation 

 of the possibilities and limitations of the use of light traps. 



The problem of light traps is particularly timely because of the general concern with 

 respect to problems resulting from the use of chemicals to control insects. This use is 

 one of the most urgent and serious problems which agriculture, in fact society as a whole, 

 has to face. The light-trap situation isalsotimely because it is illustrative of the general 

 condition of research in agriculture. A great deal of piecemeal information is available 

 on many subjects. In general this is the way research proceeds. People who have had 

 ideas have followed them to some conclusion and published the information they have 

 gathered with the evaluation of that information that seemed best to them. With light traps, 

 as in the field of chemicals, research has proceeded piecemeal--a bit here and a bit 

 there- -some pieces of information have been produced, but the gaps between them cannot 

 be readily bridged by interpolation, and attempts at extrapolation thus far have been 

 ineffective. 



The object of the papers reported in this publication is to serve as an assembly of 

 and additions to the findings of this piecemeal research and to indicate where the defects 

 and most serious gaps are in our present knowledge of the subject. In this way, it may 

 make an important contribution to either individual or team research on problems in- 

 volving the response of insects to light, sound, or other physical stimuli. 



1 Deputy Administrator, Farm Research, Agricultural Research Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture. 



