Flight Habits and Seasonal Abundance of Dried-Fruit Insects

Abstract
A motor-driven rotary net was operated in a raisin storage yard at Fresno, Calif., from Apr. 14 to Oct. 31, 1938. Data were secured on the flight habits and seasonal abundance of the following spp. or groups of insects: raisin moth (Ephestia figuliella); tobacco moth (E. elutella); Mediterranean flour moth (E. kuehniella); Ephestiodes nigrella; Indian-meal moth (Plodia interpunctella); lead cable borer (Scobicia declivis); dried fruit beetle (Carpophilus hemip-terus); foreign grain beetle (Ahasverus advena); Crypto-phagus sp.; hairy fungus beetle (Typhaea stercorea); Laemophloeus sp.; dermestids; the red flour beetle (Tri-bolium castaneum); and the saw-toothed grain beetle (Oryzaephilus surinamensis). E. figulilella and P. interpunctella made up 94% of the moths recorded. Among the beetles the nitidulids and the dermestids were the most plentiful in the air. The most abundant insect in stored raisins, O. surinamensis, was taken from the air in very small numbers. The flight habits of 12 spp. or groups were studied in detail by means of collections made at intervals of 15 min. on 10 days. Carpophilus and the dermestids fly during daylight hours; the other beetles recorded were predominantly crepuscular. All the spp. of storage moths captured flew during the night, flight usually beginning about sunset. On warm nights the raisin moth and Ephestiodes nigrella were on the wing until sunrise.