An automatic volumetric spore trap

A suction trap has been made in which the spores entering a narrow orifice, directed into the wind, are impacted on a Vaseline-coated microscope slide moved across the orifice at 2 mm./hr. Estimates of spore content of the air can be made, with higher efficiency than by previous traps, at different times of day and thus be more closely correlated with variations in weather. Wind-tunnel tests with spores of Lycopodium clavatum showed maximal and minimal efficiencies of 93.8 and 62.4% respectively, with a suction rate of 10.0 1./min., in the range of wind speeds from 1.5 to 9.3 m./sec.