To monitor and quantify the changes in pollinator communities over time, it is important to have robust survey techniques of insect populations. Pan traps allow for the assessment of the relative insect abundance in an environment and have been promoted by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) as an efficient data collection methodology. It has been proposed that fluorescent pan traps are particularly useful, as it has been suggested that they capture high numbers of insects in an unbiased fashion. We use a simultaneous presentation of fluorescent and non-fluorescent pan trap colours to assess how flower-visiting insects of different orders respond to visual stimuli and reveal a significant interaction between trap fluorescence and captured insect type. In particular, Coleoptera (beetles) and Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) were captured significantly more frequently by fluorescent traps, whilst Dipterans (flies) were captured significantly less frequently by this type of pan trap. Hymenopterans (bees and wasps) showed no significant difference in their preference for fluorescent or non-fluorescent traps. Our results reveal that the use of fluorescent pan traps may differently bias insect capture rates when compared to the typical experience of colour flower-visiting insects in natural environments. Correction factors may, therefore, be required for interpreting insect pan trap data collected with different methodologies.

There is increasing interest in developing urban design principles that incorporate good ecological management. Research on understanding the distribution and role of beneficial pollinating insects, in particular, is changing our view of the ecological value of cities. With the rapid expansion of the built environment comes a need to understand how insects may be affected in extensive urban areas. We therefore investigated insect pollinator capture rates in a rapidly growing and densely urbanized city (Melbourne, Australia). We identified a remnant native habitat contained within the expansive urban boundary, and established study sites at two nearby populated urban areas. We employed standard pan trap sampling techniques to passively sample insect orders in the different environments. Our results show that, even though the types of taxonomic groups of insects captured are comparable between locations, important pollinators like bees and hoverflies were more frequently captured in the remnant native habitat. By contrast, beetles (Coleoptera) and butterflies/moths (Lepidoptera) were more frequently observed in the urban residential regions. Our results suggest that the maintenance of native habitat zones within cities is likely to be valuable for the conservation of bees and the ecosystem services they provide.

Thermal imaging has been a mainstay of military applications and diagnostic engineering. However, there is currently no formalised procedure for the use of thermal imaging capable of standing up to judicial scrutiny. Using a scientifically sound characterisation method, we describe the cooling function of three common shoe types at an ambient room temperature of 22 • C (295 K) based on the digital output of a consumer-grade FLIR i50 thermal imager. Our method allows the reliable estimation of cooling time from pixel intensity values within a time interval of 3 to 25 min after shoes have been removed. We found a significant linear relationship between pixel intensity level and temperature. The calibration method allows the replicable determination of independent thermal cooling profiles for objects without the need for emissivity values associated with non-ideal black-body thermal radiation or system noise functions. The method has potential applications for law enforcement and forensic research, such as cross-validating statements about time spent by a person in a room. The use of thermal images can thus provide forensic scientists, law enforcement officials, and legislative bodies with an efficient and cost-effective tool for obtaining and interpreting time-based evidence.