A change of pace has taken place since the WRI interns finished their internship. I have been spending less time in the field collecting seeds, and spending more time organizing and updating my insect collection. Nevertheless, I am still pretty pleased with how I am spending my time! I have been sorting through the bees and butterflies I have caught, and attempting to identify them has been pretty challenging. The most valuable identification resources I have been working with have been a mix of books, websites and diagrams (i.e. Gretchen LeBuhn’s “Field Guide to Common Native Bees of California,” BugGuide.com, Ken Davenport’s “Butterflies of Kern and Tulare Counties, California”). I also have to give credit to Nevin Cullen and Peter Jump for sharing their expertise with me. They have taught me quite a bit about bees, moths and butterflies since I’ve started this collection!
Here Nevin soothes a fritillary with his bare hands. Smashing!
There are there are about three insects in my collection that remain a mystery. One of them is a bumblebee, a male specimen that doesn’t resemble anything listed in Johnathan Koch, James Strange and Paul Williams’ “Bumble Bees of the Western United States.” I’ve included a photo of the mystery bombus below.
Mystery Bombus sp.
The second mystery insect is also a bee, but this one is smaller than a honey bee, is a metallic-black color with scopae on its coxa and femur (sadly, I do not have a picture of this bee!). And my third mystery insect was a very photogenic beetle I found on some Yampa. As you can see, it has very long antennae, long legs, and wood-brown elytra with black markings. If anybody who reads this has any guesses, let me know!
Mystery Beetle
Identification is only one part of processing the insects. Once I have made my guess on what an insect may be, I have to pin it and posture it correctly. Proper pinning is a matter of using a pinning block that places the insect at about 3/4 the height of the pin. The pin should be placed through the right side of the insect’s thorax. If the insect is too small to pin, you stick the pin through a small piece of triangular card stock paper with a dot of glue on the end, and stick the insect to the piece of glue. Once the insect is pinned properly, you must posture them to make them look presentable in your display box. I posture my insects with forceps and a magnifying glass. The need for posturing comes from the fact that the insects usually contract their limbs into stiff and strange positions when they die. If I’m lucky, their limbs and wings will be flexible and stay in the position that I put them in. If not, their limbs, wings and heads usually snap off. The objective is to posture the insects so that all of their limbs are showing and all pairs of wings are spread open. I will admit, I definitely have some horror stories when it comes to pinning and posturing. It’s always a shame throwing away a good butterfly when its head pops off.
My collection as of 8/8/17. It still needs some rearranging and more insects to fill that blank space.