1. The current global decline of insects will have profound cascading effects as insects serve numerous roles in ecosystems. Effective but simple methods are needed to describe spatial and temporal distribution of flying insects in detail. This applies especially to important but short‐lived phenomena such as insect swarms.
2. We developed, tested and implemented a non‐invasive unbiased method with camera transects to measure spatio‐temporal fluctuations in the abundance of nocturnal flying insects in different habitats. To test the sensitivity of the method, we then tested for the influence of environmental factors on this abundance.
3. Our results show that the method is useful for the temporal and spatial comparison of insect abundances. Astonishingly, over 90% of the 63,180 photos lacked insects. We found profound differences in insect abundance and dynamic changes between the studied habitats. Photos with a large number of insects were rare, but occurred predominantly during the warmest period (June/July) and shortly after sunset.
4. Our findings emphasize the importance of quantifying the dynamics of flying insects at a high spatio‐temporal resolution. This method can be expanded to monitor long‐ and short‐term changes in nocturnal insect abundance even at continental scales. With proper development, the camera transects we describe could be used for insect monitoring similar to the way camera traps are used to monitor terrestrial vertebrate populations, and could become an important tool for addressing the current mass disappearances of insects.

中文翻译：

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相机横断面作为监测夜行性昆虫高时空历的一种方法

1. 当前的全球昆虫数量下降将产生深远的连锁影响，因为昆虫在生态系统中起着许多作用。需要有效但简单的方法来详细描述飞行昆虫的时空分布。这尤其适用于重要但短暂的现象，例如昆虫群。
2. 我们开发，测试并实施了一种非侵入性的无偏方法，采用相机样线来测量不同栖息地夜间飞行的昆虫的数量在时空上的波动。为了测试该方法的灵敏度，我们然后测试了环境因素对该丰度的影响。
3. 我们的结果表明，该方法可用于昆虫丰度的时间和空间比较。令人惊讶的是，在63,180张照片中，有90％以上没有昆虫。我们发现所研究的生境之间在昆虫丰度和动态变化方面存在巨大差异。带有大量昆虫的照片很少见，但主要发生在最温暖的时期（6月/ 7月）和日落之后不久。
4. 我们的发现强调了以高时空分辨率量化飞行昆虫动力学的重要性。这种方法可以扩展到监测夜间昆虫丰度的长期和短期变化，甚至在大陆范围内也是如此。随着适当的发展，我们描述的相机样带可用于昆虫监控，类似于相机陷阱用于监控陆生脊椎动物种群的方式，并且可能成为解决昆虫当前大量消失的重要工具。