Strangest thing you ever caught

[poisonarrow]

Hi all,

I am thinking that this one might be a fun one. I guess all of us catch things that they did not expect from time to time. Now with regards to the weirdest thing I ever caught, here is the story.

I was using bottle traps with beer and banana to see what things I could catch around the town where I studied. Nature was reasonably good, but when going with a net I hardly ever saw something. Now, these bottle traps were a revelation, caught beetle species I never knew occured in the area. However, one day i am approaching one of the traps and something big seems to be in it. Upon closer inspection it turns out that there was a dormouse trapped as well. It looked quite fat and happy, having eaten all the insects, as well as some of the beer, and left unharmed.

Bottletraps do attract other animals as well. I recall vividly a bottletrap at a university campus in India, which had a big cobra drinking from it. It scurried away quickly, but definitly a bit of a surprise.

What did you catch unintentionally?
Cheers
Ben

[vabrou]

in light traps: grey squirrels, more than 10 different species of birds, possum, frogs, lizards, toads,

species that came to the light traps, but could not enter it: numerous dozens of bird species, lots of deer, possums, raccoons, armadillos, mice, shrews, squirrels, cattle, foxes, skunks, large blue crab, lots of crayfish, beaver, bats, lots of fiddler crabs, alligators,

in sesiid pheromone traps: field mice, carrion beetles that came to feed upon mouse, flying squirrel, frogs, lizards, various beetle species, various butterfly species, hymenoptera, diptera,

in fermenting fruit bait traps: more than 10 different species of birds, including hummingbirds, gray squirrels, various beetle species, frogs, toads, lizards, hymenoptera, diptera,

in dung beetle pitfall traps: Sphingids, butterflies, shrews, mice, snakes, millipedes centipedes, hymenoptera, diptera, toads, lizards,

[johnsonsau]

We have a gibbon visiting one of the light traps in Borneo feeding on ......... the sphigidae towards dawn.

Again in Borneo we had some civets, and the usual bids flying into the ligght traps

[myotis]

I often get lethocerus Americanus at my lights. Call me wimpy, but it is a little unnerving when I am sitting and watching and have one unexpectedly land on me.

[ckswank]

I have a live trap light known as a "Bug-Napper". It's similar to a bug zapper, but catches small insects & has a screw on plastic collection chamber on the bottom. I think these were designed for people wishing to collect live insects to feed their frogs, lizards, etc. I had it hanging about 8 feet off the ground one night in my backyard. I went out around midnight to check it & found a rat inside the collection chamber chowing down on the insects inside. I tapped on the outside but it was too occupied eating to get out. Can't figure out how it managed to get in as the openings are only about 1/2 inch wide. It must have climbed the electrical cord to even reach it. Shut the light off for the night. It was gone the next morning.

[admin]

One time I had a Great Purple Hairstreak butterfly come to my collecting lights - at night!

[timmsyrj]

I once caught a little wren ( one of our smallest birds here in the U.K ) during hots spells I used to walk down woodland edges swinging my net next to the foliage and this would disturb any resting butterflies that were low down in the shade where it was cooler, especially good I found in Mediterranean regions for satyrids, whilst swinging, a little wren flew out and with a quick flick of the wrist I caught it, thinking it was a large fritillary which was my target that day, having already taken 3, I quickly released it non the worse for ware, but I had a very similar experience whilst doing this in a woodland clearing in Greece and this time almost crapped myself as I disturbed a female European eagle owl on its nest, apparently they nest on the floor, scared the life out of me, it was a good area for freyers grayling (Neohipparchia fatua) they rest on tree trunks when it gets too hot to fly and when disturbed they fly to the nearest trunk and immediately close their wings and are very difficult to spot unless you follow them quickly, it's then quite easy to place your net over them.

Rich

[mantisboy]

Dec 28, 2015 12:02:09 GMT -8 timmsyrj said:

I once caught a little wren ( one of our smallest birds here in the U.K ) during hots spells I used to walk down woodland edges swinging my net next to the foliage and this would disturb any resting butterflies that were low down in the shade where it was cooler, especially good I found in Mediterranean regions for satyrids, whilst swinging, a little wren flew out and with a quick flick of the wrist I caught it, thinking it was a large fritillary which was my target that day, having already taken 3, I quickly released it non the worse for ware, but I had a very similar experience whilst doing this in a woodland clearing in Greece and this time almost crapped myself as I disturbed a female European eagle owl on its nest, apparently they nest on the floor, scared the life out of me, it was a good area for freyers grayling (Neohipparchia fatua) they rest on tree trunks when it gets too hot to fly and when disturbed they fly to the nearest trunk and immediately close their wings and are very difficult to spot unless you follow them quickly, it's then quite easy to place your net over them.

Rich

Similar to this, I almost caught a small hummingbird once because I thought it was a sphinx moth! I was only about two meters away and had my net ready to swing, when I realized it wasn't a moth at all!

[leptraps]

I had a friend who went mothing several nights a week. The only thing he caught was the CLAP. His wife caught it too, but she never went with him

He is currently on wife number 5! He no longer collects Lepidoptera, he is to busy working to pay child support and divorce lawyers.

[vabrou]

Leroy, you apparently are the Grand Prize winner. Don't think anyone will be able to top that story.

Clark, in my 2005 publication 'Calycopis cecrops (F.) in Louisiana', I reported taking 689 specimens of the hairstreak Calycopis cecrops in my UV light traps. Since that publication, I took 220 specimens of cecrops in a single night in 7 light traps. I have reported every other Louisiana hairstreak taken in large numbers in my light traps and reported those records in past publications. Also note I capture thousands of skippers each year in my light traps. I have taken all Papilio species in Louisiana in my light traps and many in my bait traps. I reported taking Sphingids as Lathoe juglandis in my bait trap which was reported not to feed due to tiny mouth parts. Also took Hemaris diffinis, Hemaris thysbe, and Xylophanes tersa in my bait traps, and in my light traps. I reported taking 607 butterflies in light traps in my 1974 publication 'Butterflies taken in light traps. Jour. Lepid. Soc.' Butterflies are very common at UV light. I have posted images of butterflies in my light traps numerous time on my FB page. I also take hundreds to thousands of dragonflies each year in my light traps.

Here is one handy photo illustrating Some of the 70+ skippers taken in the light traps one night and another photo of 47 butterflies taken in light traps one night.

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[politula]

I once caught a water shrew, Sorex palustris, in a prairie site, about a mile from a river.

[jshuey]

I took the second known specimen of Polythrix kanshul at a UV light sheet at a hotel in Mexico. I was young, and thought it was Urbanus proteus - and I almost didn't collect it. I later turned it into a paratype when I named the species. The only older specimen I have ever found was collected by Gordon Small in panama in 1974.

www.researchgate.net/publication/267327736_A_New_Polythrix_From_Central_America_Lepidoptera_Hesperiidae

John

Here's a crappy photo of a more recent specimen from Belize

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