For the last three years I’ve been taking my ENT 432 class to the Powdermill Nature Reserve, in the wild village of Rector, PA, for a 3–4 day adventure in insect observation, collection, and preservation. This year may have been our best yet, especially as we’re settling into a rhythm and learning more about the habitats there. One of our students this year is a wedding photographer, so we also had the best photodocumentation yet. (Thanks Hillary!) Here are a few of the entomological highlights, at least from my perspective:
- For the second year in a row we collected stalk-eyed flies (Diopsidae: Sphyracephala), which were present in abundance along Powdermill Run; I always thought of these as super rare!
- Two students collected adult Microdon flies (Syrphidae) – also for the second year in a row! We tried in vain to find larvae in the ant nests at these locations. Next year we’ll get ’em
- Someone collected a xiphydriid, a family I’ve never seen outside of collections
- Aquatic sampling was incredibly productive, yielding hydrophilids, dytiscids, naucorids, belostomatids, corixids, notonectids, and all kinds of amazing larvae
That’s just scratching the surface, of course. We also collected hundreds of Ceraphronoidea for our ongoing ARTS project. I was impressed by the students’ commitment to developing their collections, as well as their willingness to engage in my natural history learning experiment (Discover Your Inner Darwin). Each student selected a 4 m2 plot in which they patiently observed (and collected) insects. I can’t wait to read their field notes. What kinds of insects did they see, and what were they doing? Did each student map his/her plot? Identify plants there? Which particular insect are they going to identify to species and write a narrative about?
Every year I wonder if I should reach out to other insect systematists (or mammalogists or herpetologists or botanists or anyone else) at other universities and try to coordinate our class field trips. Wouldn’t it be amazing to share this experience? Cook meals for each other, teach and learn from each other … Are you up for it? Let me know!
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