Month: June 2019

Sorting Specimens from the Wisconsin Trip

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

I’ve been back for a few days and finally got to the material from the recent trip to Wisconsin. I was able to fit everything in this one box luckily since most of it was in envelopes. I also a 6 alcohol vials full of specimens but they are being mailed to me since I couldn’t bring those on the plane. I also have the collecting videos up on Youtube from this trip…its a 2 parter!

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I didn’t catch as many Leps as I wanted which kind of sucks but I did manage to get a few Sphingids. The butterflies were certainly out I just didn’t pay as much time collecting them as I should have. I also got some cool moths at the porch light at my grandparents house.

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Some of the odds and ends that I pinned right away that wasn’t kept in the alcohol vials. There isn’t anything to exciting in these couple pictures.

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The main portion of the trip was focused on Odonata. Despite being rained out a couple days, which kept me from collecting in a few spots I wanted to, I was still able to get a good haul.

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After I got everything out of the travelling envelopes and sorted I finally came to the realization that I need to make a lot of envelopes for their storage in the collection….I have a feeling it’s going to take a few days.

 

Collecting Trip to Wisconsin

On By Erik OstrumIn Collecting Outings, Uncategorized, Working on the Collection1 Comment

I just got back from a trip to Wisconsin. I had two goals on this trip; visiting my family and collecting insects, both of which were successful.

I was mainly after Odonata during the trip but I also collected a good number of other groups as well. The dragonflies and damselflies were abundant and I was able to collect a good number of species.

By far the most common species was Ladona julia (chalked fronted corporal). This species was abundant in every location I collected at.

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The whiteface dragonflies were out in good numbers as well, mostly consisting of two species, Leucorrhinia frigida (frosted whiteface) and Leucorrhinia intacta (dot-tailed whiteface). I was able to get specimens from both species. The species below is the frosted whiteface.

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I saw a few darners flying but the only one I managed to catch was this Aeshna canadensis (Canada darner). Unfortunately this was one of FIVE new Odonata species I found on my very last day, which was the day I left, and didn’t have the time to properly preserve them so I had to release them.

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It was a good trip for damselflies as well and was able to collect a decent number of species. One of the species I was looking for was Calopteryx maculata (ebony jewelwing) and I was able to collect a few specimens. I only found them at one location but they were abundant (I know other locations but I got rained out and wasn’t able to collect at those areas).

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This post only has a couple pictures I was able to get. I’ll do another post in the next few days with the specimens I brought back, I figured I’d have just pictures of live individuals in this post……that jewelwing certainly is beautiful though.

Many New Lepidoptera Species to the Collection

On By Erik OstrumIn Collecting Outings, Uncategorized, Working on the Collection1 Comment

I’ve been gone the past few weeks traveling for work so I’ve been busy. But being that I’m an entomologist I get to work with insects the entire time and I get to collect in new locations all the time. This year my main sites are in south Florida and south Texas. I always have a little free time on these trips and I take full advantage and do what I do best…go collecting.

The specimens in the first photo are actually from Colorado. These were collected at two new locations the day before I left for my recent trips. The prize in this lot is the single Papilio indra that I actually caught right next to the car as I was packing up and leaving.

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This next photo includes specimens from south Texas. I was only able to get out collecting for about 45 minutes but as you can see I did manage to get some awesome stuff. The prize in this batch is the Melanis pixe. This species only enters the U.S in the southern tip of Texas. I saw a couple but only got one (I’m still happy about it).

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This last pic are the specimens from Florida. I actually have a couple favorites from these…the Dryas julia and the Phocides pigmalion. I’ve been trying to catch a Julia every time I’ve been down and finally was able to get a couple. The mangrove skipper was a complete surprise to me and I wasn’t to see one at all so I’m very pleased with the Florida batch from this last trip. Hopefully I can get some more awesome stuff next month when I’m down again.

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First Collection of the Pitfall Traps

On By Erik OstrumIn Collecting Outings, Uncategorized, Working on the Collection3 Comments

I went out and was able to collect the first samples from the pitfall traps I put out. Because of work travel they were left out for 2 weeks, which I think I will continue the rest of the season.

There was a cold and wet spell during one of the weeks that lasted almost the entire week so I was worried about the state of the traps but luckily I worried for nothing. Despite this the traps still had good production.

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I was pleased to find a few tiger beetles in a couple traps which I was hoping for. At first glance I feel I had a decent amount of beetle variety.

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Some more beetles and some grasshoppers graced me in these couple traps. I was surprised by the number of grasshoppers captured in the traps.

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This is the accumulation of all 12 traps, as you can see a large amount of ants (mostly from 2 traps) are present along with a good amount of grasshoppers and beetles. I can’t wait to sort through everything. Right now they are in storage as I’ll go through them this winter along with all the other pitfall samples I collect.