Hi! My name is Karah Roof. I’m the new intern at the Frost Museum. I’m a biology major from Northern Arizona University and I’m here to work on digitizing, imaging, and re-curating the Beatty Odonata Collection. I started last Monday, and I have already learned so much! Here are some of the highlights from my first two (well, more like one and a half) weeks:
- I have gone through and cataloged and reorganized the contents of about 250 boxes of dragonflies and damselflies, to get us a more accurate estimate of what, exactly, we have in the collection. In this process, I have come across so many interesting and beautiful specimens (helicopter damselflies, for example, but more on those in a later post …) and, unfortunately, some envelopes containing nothing but Odonata powder and dermestid poop. Although a few of the specimens have been damaged beyond repair, this is still an immense collection that is bursting with unused information that I am looking forward to unleashing on the entomological and ecological community.
- On my third day, we went into the field (!!!). We visited Ten Acre Pond where I got a chance to test out my (not so finely-tuned) Odonata netting skills. In the morning, I didn’t fare so well: two damselflies that promptly flew out of the net when I went to investigate them. In the afternoon, however, I did much better! I caught four damselflies (bluets, mostly) and five dragonflies (including one darner and a couple skimmers) to add to the collection. The most surprising catch that I made was when I swung for another bluet, checked the net and, much to my surprise, a dragonfly was just sitting there inside the net, looking at me with its big, olive eyes. In my excitement, I accidentally let the damselfly escape, but I pulled out the dragonfly. Turns out it was a teneral (which is why it was so easy to wrangle), so I let it go, but before I did, I took a couple of neat pictures of it:
- That day, I also caught a tiny dragonfly larva, which I brought back to the museum to raise. His name is Ruby (no apparent reason – I just like it). I’ve been trying to feed him all week, but he’s been too afraid of anything to eat it. I was growing concerned. Today, however: success! He ate an aphid!
So far, I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at Frost and I am looking forward to another productive and exciting seven weeks!