Understanding what drives insect movement is crucial to understanding how they might be affected by environmental or human disturbances. Methods that measure movement can be expensive, and few are available that do not rely on some sort of video footage. We developed a relatively inexpensive method that allows the user to see the full path of the individual insects within an arena after a certain amount of time, which can be captured with a photograph and later analysed with computer software applications. In our proof-of-concept experiment, we found that the ground beetle, Harpalus rufipes (Coleoptera: Carabidae), was more active in darkness and in light than in ultraviolet light and that it displayed different movement patterns under all three light treatments.

了解什么驱使昆虫运动对于了解它们可能受到环境或人为干扰的影响至关重要。测量运动的方法可能很昂贵，并且很少有不依赖某种视频素材的方法。我们开发了一种相对便宜的方法，该方法允许用户在一定时间后看到舞台上单个昆虫的完整路径，可以用照片将其捕获，然后使用计算机软件应用程序进行分析。在我们的概念验证实验中，我们发现地面甲虫Harpalus rufipes（鞘翅目：Carabidae）在黑暗和光照下比在紫外线下更活跃，并且在所有三种光照处理下都表现出不同的运动方式。