Sort session #4 was disrupted a bit by an unstable and brutal polar vortex and also some requested repairs to our lighting. I spent time labeling specimens that were mounted and sorted a couple weeks ago, and I worked to migrate a newish and largish set of set of recently collected specimens from “receiving” into their proper places in the collection. These are mostly bees and other aculeates, collected during pollinator survey work by local colleagues. Altogether we increased the collection by about 2,700 fully digitized specimens, representing dozens of species. Not too shabby!
Watching our lighting get repaired was a good reminder that we need to replace these fluorescent tubes with something much more collection-friendly. Check out these bleached specimens taken from the fixture, a honey bee and a muscoid fly, fried by ultraviolet radiation:
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