Mini-Malaise Traps
The mini-Malaise trap was designed to overcome some of the difficulties associated with the full-size Malaise trap, and to allow us to collect in very exposed situations. All linear dimensions of the Townes (1972) design were simply scaled down by half to produce a Malaise trap with a quarter of the effective catching area.
We also added some narrow floor panels off each side of the central wall to reduce the odds of crawling insects simply moving underneath the trap. Wooden base boards were designed for the poles to prevent them sinking into soft ground and to make it easier to erect a trap.
The small size of the traps allows them to be transported with the end poles and collection bottle already attached, so one person can easily spread them out, pop the poles into the wooden base boards, and peg the whole trap down in 5 minutes.
The much-reduced surface area and shorter, more rigid poles, means these traps can tolerate much windier conditions than the larger version. They can be positioned in areas too small for full-size Malaise traps, and can be more easily hidden away from public view. The disadvantage of the smaller collection area is a smaller sample in comparison with full-size Malaise traps, so the probability of collecting a particular species is therefore reduced over the same unit of time per trap.