16 Aug 2011
Whew! What a couple of days this has been! The half day we had at the station on Sunday was pretty chill (and by pretty I mean extremely…) in comparison to Monday and today. Heavens, all I want is sleep, but there simply isn’t time for that here.
We start our days bright and early. Breakfast is at 7:30, so I’ve been getting up around 6 to look over some notes and things and mentally prepare for the bombardment of information that will accost my brain come 8am. ***I’m going to have to start getting up earlier, though…I’ll need to start going around to the sheets and traps in the eeeearly, daaark mornings to hunt down the moths that don’t come out until later in the night.*** We have been doing a lecture or two in the mornings and then heading out for some good hours of field collecting (3-4hrs has been the norm thus far) outside of the research station grounds. It’s been a lot of fun to drive even 20min and see an incredible difference in fauna and flora, not to mention terrain. We eat lunch somewhere in there and then hit the lectures or field again. Then there’s dinner and then maybe another lecture and, of course, the highlight of our day: major collecting!!
Since the majority of Lepidoptera are nocturnal moths (though there are a number of diurnal or day-flying moths) the best collecting (unless you are hunting butterflies specifically) is at night at a light. We use various different bulbs with white sheets set up behind them to help attract our moths…and of course anything else that sees our wondrous orbs and simply can’t stay away ;) There actually has been a fair bit of insect diversity which has been a lot of fun for those of us who don’t consider every order outside of Lepidoptera as “trash.” I’ve seen a fair number of scarab beetles and tons of other beetle, ichneumonid wasps, caddisflies, mantid flies (!!), true flies, stink bugs and other hemiptera, leafhoppers and other homoptera/heteroptera, antlion adults (!!), and much, much more. And, yes, I have most definitely snagged a few of those lovely specimens :) I even got a solifuge (I’ve never seen one alive – I totally let the cutie feed on a couple moths before I tossed it in some EtOH) and held a wicked awesome whip scorpion (this thing was as big as my hand – so sweet!)!!! It’s been quite the exciting trip even outside of all of the lep awesomeness. I’ve been able to collect a few members of my subfamily of moth, but none of my actual critters yet…it’s OK, I still have 4 more days after today to snatch some up!
Since the majority of Lepidoptera are nocturnal moths (though there are a number of diurnal or day-flying moths) the best collecting (unless you are hunting butterflies specifically) is at night at a light. We use various different bulbs with white sheets set up behind them to help attract our moths…and of course anything else that sees our wondrous orbs and simply can’t stay away ;) There actually has been a fair bit of insect diversity which has been a lot of fun for those of us who don’t consider every order outside of Lepidoptera as “trash.” I’ve seen a fair number of scarab beetles and tons of other beetle, ichneumonid wasps, caddisflies, mantid flies (!!), true flies, stink bugs and other hemiptera, leafhoppers and other homoptera/heteroptera, antlion adults (!!), and much, much more. And, yes, I have most definitely snagged a few of those lovely specimens :) I even got a solifuge (I’ve never seen one alive – I totally let the cutie feed on a couple moths before I tossed it in some EtOH) and held a wicked awesome whip scorpion (this thing was as big as my hand – so sweet!)!!! It’s been quite the exciting trip even outside of all of the lep awesomeness. I’ve been able to collect a few members of my subfamily of moth, but none of my actual critters yet…it’s OK, I still have 4 more days after today to snatch some up!
We have been focusing more on caterpillars today which has been great fun – they’re such cuties. It’s always remarkable to me how these creatures can often times go from a super showy caterpillar to a severely drab moth and vice-versa. Not to mention the changes various caterpillars go through! It’s like looking at a completely different animal at each instar (molt) for so many of these guys! If any of y’all are interested in looking at some way pretty pictures of caterpillars check out Dave Wagner’s Caterpillars of Eastern North America. It’s an incredible field guide…worth every penny. And! I now get to say that I have collected caterpillars with Dave Wagner (living the dream!!!)!!! I feel super privileged to be able to say that. He knows so much! I’ve been blown away.
It’s been an intense day of lectures and collecting…and when I think about what else we have lined up for today I’m realizing that today (even though it’s 5:30pm here) is really just beginning. After dinner, at 7:30, we go back to the drawing boards and embark on an all-nighter of lectures and collecting. Meaning, we don’t even have the option of going to bed until 2am. Yeeeeowzas! Tomorrow is definitely going to be a loooong day, haha. It’ll be worth it, but I’m definitely going to need to take a day or two to recover once I get back to the Tundra. I’ve been crawling into bed between midnight and 1am the last two nights, but that extra hour of brain use pre-shower, pre-bed is going to be rough, y’all. For knowledge!! Haha.
Alrighty, kids, I’m off to snag a quick nap so I can study and begin processing the onslaught of info that has been the last 2.5 days before it’s rock’n’roll time again :)
I’ll keep the updates coming as long as time and the internet allows.
I’ll keep the updates coming as long as time and the internet allows.
Praying all is well!
Shalom,
~MW
1 comment:
SO much reminding me of Animal Planet...white sheets, late nights, bright lights, cameras, nets, rugged times. I'm marvelling at your stamina and trust that the excitement is both keeping you going and keeping you sanely grateful and personable... read that...lack of sleep hasn't yet turned you into a moth-eater of the human kind :) So pleased for you to have this opportunity Heather. Happy Collecting and best of luck finding some of your own research critters. Lots of love to my favorite Entomologist! Mom
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