In the past, purple LEDs were falsely marketed as “blacklights”, “UV”, or “ultraviolet”. These lights never emitted within the UV spectrum, and thus received a deservedly poor reputation. However, with new advances in LED technology, diodes are now capable of producing real UV light. Within the UVA spectrum (that which is safe and useful for attracting insects), the two wavelengths available are 365nm and 395nm. We’ve incorporated both in to the entolight to cover as much of the UVA spectrum as possible. The 365nm diodes appear dimmer, as they emit more radiation outside the visible spectrum.
A common misconception about LEDs in general is that they don’t attract insects. The diodes emit a very narrow band of wavelengths, and typical light colors won’t go into the UV spectrum at all. As a result, it’s true that they won’t attract many insects. This information was spread around and is now widely known. However, when it comes to real UV LEDs, they do indeed attract splendiferous amounts of insects.
In our own field tests with entolight, it performed equally well as fluorescent UV tubes (e.g. BioQuip) at attracting the same diversity and quantity of nocturnal insects. We also didn’t observe a significant difference between the 365nm and 395nm LEDs.
There are a few research articles that have statistically documented the performance of LED style UV lights as compared to fluorescent UV tube lights. Zemel and Houghton (2017) made such a study when they compared a portable light comprised of 9 LEDs to the standard 15-Watt BioQuip UV light. They tested lights of 5 different wavelengths, 4 of which are within the range of the entoquip light. Their determination was that there was no difference in mean specimen abundance or ordinal diversity between the LED and fluorescent tube UV lights.
An earlier study by Green, et al. (2012) likewise showed no significant difference between their 18-LED 395 nm UV light (arranged as two banks of 9 LEDs) and an 8-Watt fluorescent UV bulb.
UV LEDs are highly efficacious at attracting night-flying insects. When you consider the other advantages of entolight, such as being long-lasting, energy efficient, waterproof, sturdy, and lightweight, we believe you will find it to be the superior piece of entomology equipment for sampling nocturnal insects. We expect that you will have many rewarding insect-collecting experiences with them!
References:
Zemel, R. S. and D. Houghton. 2017. The ability of specific-wavelength LED lights to attract night-flying insects. The Great Lakes Entomologist, 50(3-4): 79–85
Green, D., D. Mackay and M. Whalen. 2012. Next generation insect light traps: the use of LED light technology in sampling emerging aquatic macroinvertebrates. The Australian Entomologist, 39: 189–194.
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