Last week we finished sorting 3 kits: S. Lewis (Scioto County), T. O’Neil (Lake Co), and C. Gunn (Clermont Co). We are over 18,200 bees pinned and databased. We actually now have a backlog of 9 boxes to be entered into the database, so we technically pinned more than that last week. Our student workers were out half the week due to the partial spring break last week.
We have sorted at least 43 of the kits, but still plenty of kits left to sort. I was working on project logistics for the specialist bee project, so no new progress on identification.
Despite our data entry backlog, we still entered a decent amount of pinned bees.
Helping in the lab in the age of Covid:
We had our first volunteer back in the lab since November! I’m excited that more people are getting vaccinated and we can have people back in the lab.
B. Heath helping to pin specimens
Wondering how you can help speed up our process? If you would like to come to the lab in Newark, there are several tasks that people can participate in. We will mostly have people start with pinning bees, but people can also be trained to sort bees from bycatch in samples, label specimens, or other lab tasks.
You do not have to be a collector to help out in the lab. You also do not have to help for the entire timeslot for a particular day, so if you are only interested in helping out for an hour or three, that still works. No one is obligated to spend the whole day pinning bees.
Want to see how to get vaccinated against Covid-19 in Ohio? See the vaccine distribution website here: https://vaccine.coronavirus.ohio.gov/
Note that all adults now eligible for the covid vaccine in Ohio! I got my first shot last week (and only side effect was soreness at injection site). All of our lab workers have also started their first doses of the vaccine as well.
Bycatch of the week: – I did not manage to photograph any bycatch this week, so no new photos. It is finally getting warm again, so bees and other bugs are emerging! Take a minute this week to find a cool bug to learn more about.
Upcoming events:
Tues, April 6th 1-3 PM – Newark Student Research Forum – One of our undergraduate students will be talking about the hoverflies that were caught in the bowl traps. Her talk will be at 2:15. Register here (and put NA for the instructor) if you would like to watch via Zoom: https://newark.osu.edu/research/research-forums/student-research-forum.html
Once a recording is available, I will try to post that on this blog.
– All for now,
MaLisa