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Showing the fan inside the bucket, plus the steel rim, arm bracket, and the hole in the sieve that the collecting jar fits over

This shows the home made bucket moth catcher in situ - it is out there in all weather. The light is mounted under the lid. A fan sits inside in the middle to suck the moths down, a kichen sieve (minus the handle) is screwed on over a hole in the bottom of the bucket, two slits in the side of the backet at the to lets the light out and the moths in. A wire hoop holds a plastic collecting jar in place underneath. All basically very simple. The key points are a slow speed on the fan, all electrical connections are hidden inside the fan housing (the top of the fan housing is sealed and waterproof (the fan throws off any water that does get in out to the side anyway)).(The standard light fitting on top is silicon sealed also). The large polycardb sheet is a snug fit on the outside of the bucket, tucked up under the rim of the bucket and held with a couple of wire pins. The hardest part was finding a steel rim that would fit inside the bucket and a steel bracket to take the mounting rod. The rim is a pizza/pie base cutter and the bracket came out of an old photocopier ( I am one of those hoarders that pull those sort of things apart and keep the pieces just in case they come in handy one day). Ron

The bug catcher from bunnings with modified light (the fluorescent circuit died after a while) and sieve and catching jar. This jar has another jar inside to separate the larger moths from the small moths. Ron.

Pics may take a bit to organise - will try tho. Moths think a bright light is the moon and navigate by it (eg keep it over their left shoulder) but as they get closer they end up circling around it, spiralling in closer - so doesn't have to be uv to work - does have to be a moonless overcast night tho. Ron.

Moth traps - I run two of them most nights to feed geckos and native frogs. One I made from an old desk fan (2 speed model cos it needs to be slow speed or the fan chops up the moths) fixed inside a bucket with a 60w clear bulb above and a large rain shield above that to keep the electrics dry, a hole in the bottom of the bucket to take a kitchen sieve, and a hole in the kitchen sieve to let the moths thru into a plastic jar fixed underneath. The plastic jar also has small holes in it to allow air current to pass thru. The holes in the jar are made by heating a nail over the kitchen stove and piercing the jar with the hot nail. The 2nd moth trap is a bug catcher from Bunnings ($100) which catches small flies as well as moths but is not allowed to get wet (ie its not wet weather proof) so stays under the porch at home. It also has a faster fan which unfortunately chops many of the larger moths. I replaced the collecting jar it came with with a sieve and plastic jar same as the trap above. The jar above also has a self closing flap so that the moths don't escape when removing it from the sieve. The self closing flap is the lid of a margarine container cut into a star pattern in the centre so that the points of the star open downward when the jar is pushed up against the sieve. The margarine container lid is cut to fit inside the lid of the jar and the jar lid has the centre cut out of it so the moths can pass thru. I hope all that makes sense. Ron.

Thank you very much for the invitation. Unfortunately I am in Palmerston North this weekend, Masterton the following weekend (for the New Zealand Iris Society convention), working the Saturday the 20th and off to Te Aroha on the weekend 27th which leaves precious little time before the 30th (the end of the permitted season according to what I read on one of your other posts) so I would love to accept your offer of a few babies; 6-8 fish would be fine. I will make sure the person on duty knows what to do with them. It would have been good to see some in the field again too. I am looking forward to seing Stella's new book too! Ron.

There are 225 hectares of park (and waterways) and 99% of the visitors don't reach the halfway point - it is very easy to go off to the south end and not see anyone - just birds, (fish in the streams if youre that way inclined) and even tuatara on the tracks where you least expect it. Peter: I would like to take up your offer of getting some more whitebait. I can be contacted at the sanctuary quite easily. The eggs still haven't hatched but I'm not sure I'll ever be able to see any eyes in them with out some sort of magnification - the eggs just look like a carpet of very tiny airbubbles at this stage. Ron

Watch out for baby anemonies after you have fed them up for a while - they pop out of the mouth in the middle.

In reply to Sage - no I don't keep any marine fish now. I originally set up the tank for banded blennies - they are just as beautiful as neon tetras. They are also found below the low tide mark and I ran into the same problem of keeping the tank cool enough in summer. Rock fish and sucker fish are much tougher but there is not much you can keep in the tank with those guys. Ron

Oops - still lots to learn obviously - I just assumed he was a she. The best way to enjoy the sanctuary is to take out a membership - its about $60 but you can go several times a day if you want (some of our members do that), every day (except Christmas), and get free invites to all sorts of evening presentations, talks, special events, subsidies etc. Ron

Notes from the note book: "Caught early Jan and placed in a mixed fish / shrimp marine tank. A few days later it was lying next to the glass under the sand and I was able to make a sketch. I didn't see it again until late February when I found it on the floor - already dry but still alive! (There were only two small holes in the lid for airline tubes). Needless to say it was a bit sick and lay on the surface of the sand for a couple of hours. Then it began skimmiing around the surface of the tank with a rapid snakelike wriggling of the body. Then another rest on the sand and within half an hour it had vanished again. (2 foot tank). Mid June - I had just put in a load of polychaete worms when the sand in the middle of the tank erupted. I didn't actually see the fish although it must have been just under the surface. Mid August - I saw the sand move - more or less caved in - but I didn't see the fish. 12th Oct - in the evening I put in a load of live crustacea (plankton) and the following day the Limnichtys was on the surface of the sand making lightning darts for the crustacea, thinner, paler, but very active, the eyes moving independantly and no longer shy. (I usually collected the plankton by torch at night so the fish were usually fed at night). Was still visible at 4pm but gone by 10pm when more plankton was added. Was on view again the following morning. 29 Jan - was out hunting again at night. Unfortunately it was dead a few days later - possibly due to the tank getting too warm - it was now the height of summer. So I saw it only 4 times in a whole year. Ron.

Incidentally when it was described it was the juvenile larval form that was found by poisoning the water in rockpools. Ron.

Success at last. As you can imagine, at a distance of 1m the fish becomes invisible. (Very hard to keep track of when you have to keep returning to the surface while snorkeling). Ron.

I have managed to load a sketch. Those eyes on stalks appear to be able to retract completely when the fish dives into the sand. The mouth is very hard to see unles it is open. There is a red area behind the gills that I presume pumps water over the gills when the mouth is closed, and the fish is under the sand. The photos still dont want to load and yet are less than the 640 pixels required. Will keep trying. Ron