Tag: insect collector

Sorting Some Sweep Net Samples

On 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 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.

 

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.

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.