Seasonal dispersal of Carcinops pumilio (Erichson) was evaluated using two trapping methods-a black-light pitfall trap and a mesh-bottomed trap placed on poultry manure. The black-light trap collected larger numbers than the mesh-bottomed trap from March through June. The mesh-bottomed trap gathered larger numbers of beetles from June through August and numbers were less variable throughout the year. Often, when very low numbers of beetles were recovered from manure cores, large numbers of beetles could be collected with the black-light trap suggesting that beetle density may not be an important factor in dispersal behavior. The greatest dispersal in the dispersal arenas (≈90%) occurred using beetles collected by both trap types in June 2000. Beginning in March and ending in August, a cyclic rise and then fall pattern in both laboratory dispersal and beetle collections was observed. Trap collection patterns were similar in both years of the study. In January and March, we were unable to prevent dispersal behavior of beetles captured in black-light traps. However, in May, after beetles had been in a dispersal phase for several months, we were able to suppress dispersal. In contrast, dispersal behavior among beetles captured with the mesh-bottomed trap did not change following the photoperiod-altered exposur
