Sorting Some Sweep Net Samples

On July 19, 2019 By Erik OstrumIn Collecting Outings, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Today I finished sorting a couple sweep samples I took in my neighborhood park. After each sweep session I empty the contents into a gallon zip-lock bag. This time I only had two bags worth of material but it still took me two days to sort through.

Here was bag one

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And here is bag two

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I sorted the specimens into separate petri dishes. One was for the large specimens for regular pinning and one for all the specimens that need to be pointed. I also pinned the flies using minuten pins.

Here are all the large specimens. I nice male Melanoplus bivittatus, a few weevils and some beautiful Cassida rubiginosa are some of my favorites from the large insects.

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There were a decent variety of fly species in the samples. A couple highlights of this batch includes Tephritidae, Syrphidae and Asilidae (the small robber flies at the bottom).

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There were some awesome specimens that I found that were placed in the pointing pile. A decent amount of Cicadellidae (and decent variety), which I was hoping for, plus some awesome tiny parasitic wasp families that I haven’t ID’ed yet.

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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.

Weekend Collecting (6/7-April-2019)

On April 29, 2019April 29, 2019 By Erik OstrumIn Collecting Outings, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I’m not writing as much on the blog as I hoped I was, but I’m trying to change that and start catching up on some things. With the weather turning to spring the insects are starting to come out in full force. This post is a catch of the first real collecting outings of the season.

Day 1:

The first day of collecting (6-April) turned into a relatively good day. I got out maybe a little to early and it was still quite cool and very little insect activity.

This female oil beetle (Meloe sp.) was the first insect I saw. As you can see the right elytra was a little wonky so I decided to let her go on her way.

It finally started to warm up and the insect activity finally begun to pick up….after about 2 hours in the field already. It was shortly after this that I finally saw the first butterflies of the day. They were staying close to the stream flying back and forth. It took a few tries but I finally netted a mourning cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) as it basked on a rock sticking out of the creek.

I decided to keep it for the collection since it was the first butterfly I collected for the season and also for some strange reason I didn’t have any specimens from this location, but now I do.

I was pretty happy to see some of the first wild flowers blooming because with them blooming I had a chance some early spring visitors. About half a dozen of these Andrena sp. were taking full advantage of the flowers and were quite busy bees. I also decided to collect one so I could get a proper ID plus I’m sure I didn’t have this species yet in the collection.

What made the day end on an even higher note were the numerous tiger beetles out and about. I was able to collecting some of both species that were present that day.

Cicindela purperea audubonii

Cicindela limbalis

All in all I was extremely pleased with how the day ended up and was happy with the insects I was able to collect. Below is a little overview of what I collected.

Day 2:

I went back to the same general area on the second day (7-April) but just a few miles down the road. The main collecting I did that day was ants and was able to collect a decent amount. Of course other insects were out as well and I definitely collected some of them as well. I didn’t take as many photos though (focusing hard on the ants) but I made sure to get a couple.

The most common things flying were the grasshoppers, specifically Arphia conspersa and I decided to collect a few and also managed to get a picture of one. All the individuals at this location were yellow-winged.

One of my favorite finds of the day happened while I was on my way out. I decided to flip over a log cause well…you never know. I was greeted by this beautiful Eleodes sp. I had a hard time photographing it cause it wouldn’t stop moving around.

I was also able to collect a couple Polygonia gracilis (hoary comma) which were flying next to the creek. I also collected a few other beetles, a couple Hymenopterans and a single cool looking Hemipteran of which I’m not sure on the genus or species.

These are all now pinned and dried and in the storage box waiting for their labels, which I won’t do until next winter when the collecting season is over. It was a good start and I have a feeling it’s going to be a good collecting year.

Main Collecting Goal: Ant Nest Series

On April 10, 2019 By Erik OstrumIn Collecting Outings, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Last year was the first real intense year on collecting ants (Formicidae). To that end most of the collecting was done by picking up any random foragers I found. I decided to do this to give me just a simplified general understanding of what ants are present in the area.

This year I’m doing it a little differently, by collecting ant nest series. Basically this means I’ll be collecting a large number of individuals from nests to get the variations between workers (minors and majors) as well as the different castes (workers, queens, males). Obviously males are only present at certain times of the year and the queens can be difficult to find so collecting them is an added bonus. Ants are identified using the worker castes so getting the variety of them is the way to go.

When I find a nest I take notes on location, size, appearance, etc. I collect the ants I want and try to find the queen. I also take notes on the ants behavior when disturbed and whether any larvae, pupae, or alates are present. I also note if I find more than one ant species in the same nest. As you can see I also take a picture of the nest with a ruler and a note card that shows which sample it is.

The 2019 season just started so I’m ready to really start collecting. The first outing was this past weekend and I collected six samples so far. I could have gotten more but like a noob I only brought a few vials and ran out..I should have known better…..oh well.

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Here are some pictures of some of the ant nests I took some series of.

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E.M.O.P.I.C

Tag: entomology