Field tests of a balloon‐suspended trap system for studying insects in the canopy of tropical rainforests

A system of suspending traps from a movable balloon was developed and tested on pollinating and wood boring Coleoptera in a tropical rainforest canopy in Pasoh Forest Reserve, Peninsular Malaysia. The balloons, 2.5 m in diameter, were filled with helium gas for levitation and moored in different directions by three pieces of thin rope. Traps in which benzyl acetate and ethanol were used as attractants for the pollinators and wood borers, respectively, were suspended from the balloon at different heights. The trapping results show that the balloon system can be used for studying canopy insects and their vertical distribution on a spatial and temporal scale.