Pairs of Texas wire cone traps equipped with automatic insect detection and recording apparatus and operated adjacent to cotton fields were baited alternately with synthetic pheromone dispensers and five virgin females of bollworms (BW) and tobacco budworms (TBW) during several short, discrete periods in 1990 in the Brazos River Bottom area of Burleson County, TX. Capture patterns for TBW males attracted by virgin females and by 2-component synthetic pheromone lures were unimodal and temporally very similar. TBW males responded to both baits in about equal numbers and catches with both baits occurred primarily between 2300 and 0500 h (CST) with peak catches between 0100 and 0300 h. capture patterns for BW males attracted by virgin females and 4-component synthetic lures were temporally dissimilar. Traps baited with synthetic lures typically captured more than twice as many BW males than those baited with virgin females, and the catch patterns for the synthetic lures tended to be bimodal and somewhat variable. BW males attracted by synthetic lures were captured primarily between 2100 and 0500 h (CST) with peak catches occurring at 2200 - 2300 h and again at 0300-0400 h. The increased attractiveness of the BW as compared to the TBW synthetic pheromone lures may have contributed to the bimodal capture patterns observed for the BW males.