Sorting Specimens from the Wisconsin Trip

On June 29, 2019 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!

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.

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.

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.

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 June 27, 2019 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.

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.

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.

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).

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 June 19, 2019 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 June 1, 2019 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.

Damselflies During Lunch

On May 29, 2019 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 May 15, 2019 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 May 13, 2019 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!

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

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.

Keeping Busy on the Collection

On March 25, 2019 By Erik OstrumIn Uncategorized, Working on the CollectionLeave a comment

The blog has been put on the backburner lately. I’ve been super busy working on the collection and trying to get everything caught up, which to my surprise I almost am. Within the next couple weeks I should have an update specimen count for the collection and it will be just in time before the 2019 collecting season gets in full swing.

A big step took place the past couple weeks that will allow me to make huge progress and actually start identifying much of the collection. I’ve been allowed to work and use the facilities at the C.P Gillette Museum of Arthropod Diversity at Colorado State University. I now have the space, the equipment and the resources to process and ID a large number of insects at a time which will allow my collection to expand greatly. I’ve also started to help ID some of the unsorted material at the museum and plan on expanding their ant collection.

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As for my personal collection, I’ve been going through and identifying the ants. I’m down to the last few specimens from Wisconsin and then I’m going to start on the Arkansas specimens. It shouldn’t take to long as there aren’t a whole of specimens from that state.

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These are the first couple rounds of Wisconsin ants I’ve gone through. The last round I’ll finish this week. These were all collected mostly in 2015 which is a few years before I decided to focus much of the collection on ants. I’m really hoping to get a good sample of Wisconsin ants in the next couple years, I have my whole family as well as college professors there, so I’m hoping to enlist their help.

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Collection Update 1-Feb-2019

On February 2, 2019 By Erik OstrumIn Uncategorized, Working on the CollectionLeave a comment

I figured I’d start doing frequent updates to let you all know what’s been going on behind the scenes. I’ll likely keep these posts short and sweet since it’s boring to just read forever.

This past week I’ve been making progress on labeling everything that needs labels. I finished pointing the ants which is a relief so I’ve been focusing mainly on labels now. I went to the store to get the last couple items I needed to begin processing all the bowl traps. I’ll start doing that this weekend and I’ll also do a post and video about that process.

If I keep going at the rate I’m at I should have all my pinning and labels caught up and have a new total specimen count before the season really gets going.

Tonight I also purchased some more equipment for this upcoming collecting season.

Bumblebees Get Their Unit Trays

On January 23, 2019 By Erik OstrumIn Uncategorized, Working on the CollectionLeave a comment

I took some time this past weekend to do some work on the collection. I decided to move all the bumblebees into their own unit trays so they can be ready to go into the new drawers that are coming in the mail. The first step before all of this was to sort through and ID all the specimens I have labeled so far.

The end result of sorting and ID’s was this slab of styrofoam, which as you can see has the specimens grouped into their respective species, totaling 24 species.

The next thing I did was assemble the unit trays. Instead of regular trays I buy the folding unit tray kits. The downfall is that I have to put them together myself but they are cheaper in the long run than buying a whole bunch of regular trays at a time. When all is said and done they still look nice and tidy when all complete and I’ve always liked using them.

All that’s left to do is putting the bees into the trays. Here is a finished tray of Bombus impatiens. You can see the labeled card telling me what’s in the tray. I created a label card for each species which requires much measuring and cutting.

Finally after a bit of time I finished. These trays are now ready to be put into some Cornell Drawers which will be arriving in a couple days. Now that I’m finished with all the bumblebees, its time to move on to the sorted and ID’ed Lepidoptera.

E.M.O.P.I.C

Category: Working on the Collection