Showing posts with label entomology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label entomology. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
My Juggernaut
In entomology lab today, we got to play with beetles. We tied a piece of floss around them and taped that to an empty petri dish. We then set them to walking along a fairly rough surface so that they could grip and pull. As they walked along, we added washers one at a time until the beetle just couldn't pull the dish any more. The Juggernaut pulled 32 washers before he pooped out, earning himself his name as well as pet status. The deal I've worked out with him is that if he dies before the end of the semester, I will pin him and add him to my collection, and if he's still around after final exams I will let him go. This kind of beetle can live for over a year as an adult.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Looking for Trouble
After dinner I decided to follow up on a tip someone gave in class about these really really large moths that seem to come out about dusk at the soccer field. I asked some of my male buddies if they would mind going with me, since the soccer field is a ways out and I didn't want to be walking around by myself after dark. Besides, more eyes means better chances of finding something, right?
So we make it out to the field carrying my butterfly net and jar-o-doom, and there's absolutely nothing there. Well, now the guys just want to see my killing jar in action, so we make our way to the tennis courts and I find a winged ant. I told them that the bugs just act really high and then pass out, end eventually die of an OD on the chemical. They thought my analogy was hilarious, and watched the ant very intently giving of-the-moment interpretative narrative. "Oh no! My legs! Ack ack, ahhh....." They were so amused that they walked around a whole section of campus with me from lit spot to lit spot looking for interesting things to kill. We found a mosquito hawk/crane fly (the giant mosquito kind, not the dragonfly kind), a huge beetle, a big cricket, and several moths. There also seemed to be another green stink bug every time we turned around. They seemed to be everywhere tonight.
We also found a big green grasshopper that I happened to know from personal experience has the most scary looking mandibles, so I picked it up and showed the guys, who agreed they don't want to be bit by that! So, we proceded to find a worthy-looking spider web and deposited the grasshopper there, hoping to get a death-match going, but the spider didn't look game. It was more along the lines of, "what are you doing to my web?"
Walking around having fun with my freinds: it's great and I wish I did it more often.
So we make it out to the field carrying my butterfly net and jar-o-doom, and there's absolutely nothing there. Well, now the guys just want to see my killing jar in action, so we make our way to the tennis courts and I find a winged ant. I told them that the bugs just act really high and then pass out, end eventually die of an OD on the chemical. They thought my analogy was hilarious, and watched the ant very intently giving of-the-moment interpretative narrative. "Oh no! My legs! Ack ack, ahhh....." They were so amused that they walked around a whole section of campus with me from lit spot to lit spot looking for interesting things to kill. We found a mosquito hawk/crane fly (the giant mosquito kind, not the dragonfly kind), a huge beetle, a big cricket, and several moths. There also seemed to be another green stink bug every time we turned around. They seemed to be everywhere tonight.
We also found a big green grasshopper that I happened to know from personal experience has the most scary looking mandibles, so I picked it up and showed the guys, who agreed they don't want to be bit by that! So, we proceded to find a worthy-looking spider web and deposited the grasshopper there, hoping to get a death-match going, but the spider didn't look game. It was more along the lines of, "what are you doing to my web?"
Walking around having fun with my freinds: it's great and I wish I did it more often.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
The World of Bugs
My entomology class went on another field trip down the road today. Among other things, I found this huge caterpillar, commonly known as the woolly bear. I've never seen one before, and I was afraid to touch it. Anyway, here is a picture of it, already in a preservation jar, so please ignore the glare.
I also found this really huge awesome beetle just outside the science building. It has rows of green spots going down its' back. You can see a few of them if you look really hard.
And here is my collection so far, minus the caterpillars:
And a close up of the big moth, because everyone seems to really like that one:
In other news, I finished as much of the pink scarf as I plan on doing for a while. I want to do the hat that will go with it, and then use any left over yarn from that to make the scarf longer. Currently it is only about 51 inches long, and it's really thick. If I had a better idea of what the finished product was going to be like before I started, I would have modified it to only one cable with a garter stitch boarder in order to make it less wide and more usable. I mean, perhaps if I lived in a place where snow was a regular occurrence in the winter, then perhaps it would fit in better. But here, snow is a once every so many years occasion. I consider weather where I can see my breath as weather that you should stay inside for. Maybe I should move to Hawaii.
I also found this really huge awesome beetle just outside the science building. It has rows of green spots going down its' back. You can see a few of them if you look really hard.
And here is my collection so far, minus the caterpillars:
And a close up of the big moth, because everyone seems to really like that one:
In other news, I finished as much of the pink scarf as I plan on doing for a while. I want to do the hat that will go with it, and then use any left over yarn from that to make the scarf longer. Currently it is only about 51 inches long, and it's really thick. If I had a better idea of what the finished product was going to be like before I started, I would have modified it to only one cable with a garter stitch boarder in order to make it less wide and more usable. I mean, perhaps if I lived in a place where snow was a regular occurrence in the winter, then perhaps it would fit in better. But here, snow is a once every so many years occasion. I consider weather where I can see my breath as weather that you should stay inside for. Maybe I should move to Hawaii.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Living Things
This semester I'm taking entomology, among other things, and we are required to make an insect collection that is Smithsonian quality, with a minimum of 70 insects covering 10-12 families. Today we made our kill jars.
The plaster is still drying. After it's done I will pour ethyl acetate into the little holes in the bottom to soak the sawdust, and off to massacre some wildlife I will go! It still bothers me that I will be killing living things--and that our class as a whole will be out there doing the same thing. Some bugs, such as ants and cockroaches, are fairly common, but things like butterflies? I don't feel like there are enough of those around here for us to be collecting them for the fun of it. Why do all of us need our own dead bug collection anyway, when just a few living specimens of each species can teach us the same amount of information, if not more (behavior for instance). Sure, it won't be mounted on the wall for us to reference, but when we are done with them they can go on to make sure that our grandchildren will be able to look at them up close and personal as well. How sad would it be to know that everyone has a certain mounted butterfly in their attics or basements, but that has since gone extinct?
On a better note:
These are my two little Triops!
They are only about 5 days old here, and already about half an inch long. This is about the 3rd or 4th time I've hatched some. They are very fascinating creatures. They start out about the size of the dot on the letter i, and grow to be an inch and a half long or more. I bought the eggs at Hobby Lobby for about $4.
The plaster is still drying. After it's done I will pour ethyl acetate into the little holes in the bottom to soak the sawdust, and off to massacre some wildlife I will go! It still bothers me that I will be killing living things--and that our class as a whole will be out there doing the same thing. Some bugs, such as ants and cockroaches, are fairly common, but things like butterflies? I don't feel like there are enough of those around here for us to be collecting them for the fun of it. Why do all of us need our own dead bug collection anyway, when just a few living specimens of each species can teach us the same amount of information, if not more (behavior for instance). Sure, it won't be mounted on the wall for us to reference, but when we are done with them they can go on to make sure that our grandchildren will be able to look at them up close and personal as well. How sad would it be to know that everyone has a certain mounted butterfly in their attics or basements, but that has since gone extinct?
On a better note:
These are my two little Triops!
They are only about 5 days old here, and already about half an inch long. This is about the 3rd or 4th time I've hatched some. They are very fascinating creatures. They start out about the size of the dot on the letter i, and grow to be an inch and a half long or more. I bought the eggs at Hobby Lobby for about $4.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
