Month: May 2019

Damselflies During Lunch

On By Erik OstrumIn Uncategorized, Working on the CollectionLeave a comment

This year one of my pet projects is expanding the Odonata section of my collection. This is yet another group that’s severely lacking but I’m hoping will take great strides this year. The other week at work I was on my normal lunch walk when I noticed quite a large number of damselflies were out so I decided to take a handful.

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I was able to get specimens (both male and female) of Ischnura damula (plains forktail). Here you can see they are all already in their envelopes. I’ll make a post sometime in the future on the process of preserving Odonates.

Pitfall Traps are Finally Out

On By Erik OstrumIn Collecting Outings, Uncategorized, Working on the CollectionLeave a comment

I went out yesterday before work to set out some pitfall traps. I’m planning on trapping at 3 different locations this year and this is the location number 1. At this location I set up 12 traps….I could have done more but that’s how many I brought with me…..I might add more later.

The main part of pitfall traps is picking the location, luckily though its simple enough to move the traps if they end up not catching anything. I finally found a spot I like so now its time to dig.

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I make sure to only dig the size of the cup I’m using to minimize the amount of disturbance. When the cup is in make sure it is at ground level so the insects easily fall in. I use 2 cups for each trap, the one underneath will catch water so it doesn’t flood the cup with the insects.

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Once this is all set I add the preservative, in this case I use antifreeze. This will kill and preserve the insects until I get around to checking them. I’m probably going to end up doing this bi-weekly at the minimum, depends how busy my schedule is.

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Lastly I put a cover over the trap to protect it from the sun. The cover also acts as a shade source and should keep the ground around the trap cooler so theoretically the insects would seek cover and fall into the trap during the heat of the day (I’m hoping at least). I’m currently using small plates but hoping to find something more sturdy but still allows access to the trap from all sides.

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That’s what goes into my pitfall traps. I’m hoping they work out and I get some awesome samples. Of course I’ll make sure to post the samples here on the blog.

Miami Trip #1 (May)

On By Erik OstrumIn Collecting Outings, Uncategorized, Working on the CollectionLeave a comment

I just got back from a week long trip to Miami. Unfortunately it was for work and not a collecting trip……that didn’t stop me from collecting when I could though.

One of my favorite finds (as I only see them when I travel to the southeast) was the eastern lubber grasshopper (Romalea microptera). There was a large group of nymphs and adults at one of the collecting site for work so I grabbed a few.

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Another awesome find were large number of click beetles that do something that most people probably would never think click beetles do….glow. I believe all the ones I saw and collected are Ignelater havaniensis which are only found in southern Florida (in the US at least).

Check out that glow!

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I didn’t get a whole bunch of pictures of the live insects (work and all) but I did manage to collect a decent number of specimens considering how little time I had.

I was able to get a decent number of butterflies (thanks in part for the pocket net now bring on trips)….my favorite that I collected this trip is Heliconius charithonia (zebra longwing)..these are the first specimens I’ve been able to collect and I’m super happy to finally have netted a few. The Anartia jatrophae (white peacock) you see is a bit beat up but I didn’t have that species in the collection yet either so I decided to keep it.

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Here is everything else I collected

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In the picture below you can see a white colored weevil which I have never seen before, I can’t to figure out the species on all of these!

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In this next picture you have see the lubbers as well as the click beetles as they were all collected at the same site.

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This last picture is all the small insects that I have left which all require points. I started already and actually just finished everything before I wrote this post. Most of it is ants and small wasps.

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I’m quite thrilled with the insects I managed to collect on this trip and since I’m going to Miami quite a few times this year I should be able to get some more awesome additions to the collection.

Grasshoppers for a Friend

On By Erik OstrumIn Orthoptera, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I have a Facebook friend down in Texas that collects grasshoppers and doesn’t have any material from Colorado. I told him I could start collecting specimens for him and so we set it up where I would collect Colorado stuff for him and he would collect south Texas material for me (I have some south Texas material in my collection but overall is severely lacking).

I collect some grasshoppers last week for him and this weekend I put them in their envelopes so I can store them until I bring them down to Texas later this year.

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This batch has two species. I got 3 Eritettix simplex and 6 Arphia conspersa that show 3 different wing color forms.

I decided to individually store each grasshopper.

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I then put them in a large envelope with the data and now they are all set. I’ll keep adding specimens throughout the summer and hopefully get a good selection of species for him.

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