Yesterday was sort session #2, and we’re picking up steam. I recruited Michael Skvarla to join me and a special guest(!) to sort through pan trap samples from New York, collected during our last meet-up with the Ware lab. Here’s the site:
Diapriid city! There were tons of other Hymenoptera in these samples too. There weren’t as many adult spiders as I hoped, though, so I didn’t get to test my burgeoning ID skillz.
I made a lot more point mounts using that Tombow adhesive. I think I might be in love with polyvinyl alcohol. It makes such nice, grippy bonds and it a dream to work with. I don’t know yet how it holds up over the long term or how reversible it is, but it beats shellac by a mile.
I also labeled up a ton of ensign wasp specimens. I have SO MANY EVANIIDS—from Madagascar, Costa Rica, Thailand, Australia, you name it. Tens of thousands of specimens. It’s ridiculous, actually, and most are still filed away in our freezers, unmounted. Maybe 2019 is the year they enter the research stream.
We talk about a lot of things relevant to the Frost Museum, including our collective desire to organize some overnight expeditions. We’ll add that to our list of new years resolutions!
Leave a Reply