insects

Explaining Science – taxonomy of parasitoid wasps

Professor Norm Johnson, Director of our C.A. Triplehorn Insect Collection, studies systematics of parasitoid wasps and so do his students. Graduate student Elijah Talamas collected many insect specimens during his PhD work at Ohio State and revised several taxa. Recently he published a photographic catalog of some primary types of parasitoid wasps in the large insect order Hymenoptera.

samurai wasp, Trissolcus japonicus
Trissolcus euschisti, an egg‐parasitoid of stink bugs

I contacted Elijah in his current position at the The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Service and asked him to give us some insights into his life as a researcher. He recently published results from work he did as a a postdoctoral fellow for the U.S. Department of Agriculture at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC:

Elijah TalamasElijah: “I am the curator of Hymenoptera (bees, ants and wasps) at the Florida State Collection of Arthropods, which is part of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. I have broad interests in the taxonomy, morphology, and evolution of platygastroid wasps, especially groups with potential for biological control. I was trained by Dr. Norman Johnson at The Ohio State University, and maintain active collaboration with him and members of his lab.”

Angelika: “What species did you study?”

Elijah: “As a taxonomist, I study many species and genera in the superfamily Platygastroidea. These are parasitoid wasps that require development in a host to complete their life cycle, i.e. their larvae live as parasites that eventually kill their hosts. The past few years have focused on the genus Trissolcus which are parasitoids of stink bug eggs.”

(Angelika’s note: You may recall that the brown marmorated stink bug is an invasive species from Asia, now found in the eastern half of the U.S., as well as California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. You may have seen one in your home, especially in late fall when they are looking for a sheltered place to overwinter)

Angelika: “What was your research questions in this particular study?”

Elijah: “A typical taxonomic project will “revise” a genus and involves many questions: What are the characters that define the genus? How many species does it contain and how do we identify them? The separation of organisms into species is the foundation of organismal biology and this is one of the jobs of a taxonomist.”

brown marmorated stink bugAngelika: “What do we know already, and why is it important to know this?”

Elijah: “We know that many parasitoid wasps attack the eggs of agricultural pests. This is important because they are often the best, and sometimes only solution to control numbers. The invasive brown marmorated stink bug is an invasive pest that can be found in Ohio, and it is not controlled by natural enemies in the United States. However, there are parasitoid wasps in its native distribution in Asia that kill the stink bugs’ eggs very efficiently. Biological control research about these wasps requires thorough study of their morphology to ensure that
species are properly identified.”

Angelika: “How did you study this question?”

Elijah: “I study parasitoid wasps by examining them under a microscope, documenting their anatomical structures, and the variability that can occur within a species. This often requires examination of specimens from all over the  world, and sometimes international travel is required to access specimens in foreign institutions and to collect fresh material. I rely heavily on photography to document and share information about these wasps, but I also use other techniques, including scanning electron microscopy and analysis of DNA.”

When looking at detailed features one may notice that some of them are different from how they were originally described and the specimen may be more closely related to to another group of specimens. This means that sometimes the classification of the species needs to be revised and renamed to reflect these new relationships. For example, in the figures below you can see the holotype, the specimen that was used to describe the species Psilanteris nigriclavata. This species was originally described with the name Opisthacantha nigiclavatus in 1905. The specimen was embedded in glue, which obscured some of its diagnostic characters and hampered a clear assessment of its identity. As part of this project, Elijah dissolved some of the glue and determined that it shared characteristics with other species in the genus Psilanteris. Thus this species was moved to this genus and now operates under the name Psilanteris nigriclavata.

62 head, mesosoma, metasoma, lateral view; 63 head and mesosoma, anterodorsal view (sk=skaphion); 64 head and mesosoma, lateral view. Scale bars in millimeters.

Angelika:  “Why is this research important?”

Elijah: “Taxonomy informs us about many aspects of the biological world. It is the science that reveals the planet’s biological diversity and discovers the evolutionary relationships between organisms. It enables other disciplines to identify organisms for the studies of behavior and ecology, and applications with large scale societal impact, such as biological control of invasive pests.”

Angelika: “What do you hope to have achieved with this study?”

Elijah: “For parasitoid wasps in the superfamily Platygastroidea, this study provides photographs of all holotype specimens in the National Musuem of Natural History and makes them freely available online. Taxonomists all over the world now have immediate access to these specimens through the internet, enabling them to make better informed decisions for classification, and more refined hypotheses about evolution.”

Let us know if you have any questions, we would like to hear form you!

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Some explanations you may find helpful:

Anterodorsal means in front and toward the back.

A holotype is a single type specimen upon which the description and name of a new species is based.

Lateral means from the side.

The body of arthropods is composed of three parts, from front to back, the prosoma, mesosoma, metasoma.

A parasitoid is an insect whose larvae live as parasites that eventually kill their hosts.

Superfamily is an intermediate classification rank directly above family and might contain one or more related families. For example, Muroidea, a superfamily of rodents, contains six families of rats, mice, hamsters and gerbils. Taxonomists use several levels to classify living things. They follow the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature which specifically mentions superfamily, family, subfamily, tribe, subtribe, genus, subgenus, species, subspecies.

Reference: Talamas, E. J., Thompson, J., Cutler, A., Schoenberger, S. F., Cuminale, A., Jung, T., … & Alvarez, E. (2017). An online photographic catalog of primary types of Platygastroidea (Hymenoptera) in the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. Journal of Hymenoptera Research, 56, 187.

About the Author: Angelika Nelson is the curator of the Borror Laboratory of Bioacoustics and the Outreach and social media manager for the museum. Here she interviewed Elijah Talamas, currently Postdoctoral researcher with the U.S. Department of Agriculture at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC.

Dragonflies and Damselflies of Ohio

Dragonfly at Magee Marsh Wildlife Area.

Dragonfly at Magee Marsh Wildlife Area.

The Triplehorn Insect Collection is beginning a collaborative project to survey the dragonflies and damselflies of Ohio.

These spectacular aerial predators are surprisingly diverse: currently 164 species have been recorded in the state. Brilliant colors and striking markings make them the songbirds of the insect world. The immature stages of all species are aquatic, and these animals are found in lakes, rivers, ponds, and streams from Lake Erie to the Ohio River.  Although many dragonflies and damselflies are common, a number are listed as threatened or endangered.

This new Ohio Odonata Survey is scheduled to last 3 years. The work will be done together with the ODNR Division of Wildlife, the Ohio Odonata Society, and a network of avid volunteers and citizen scientists across the state.

MaLisa Spring, an Entomologist and recent OSU graduate, just joined us as coordinator for all of these efforts.  She will be working out of the Triplehorn Insect Collection in Columbus, and will be actively interacting with participants around the state.

Information on the project can be found in the newly created Ohio Odonata Survey website.  Project activities will also be widely advertised on social media.

Ohio naturalists are invited to contribute to the project. If you have images that can help document the distribution and seasonality of the various species of dragonflies and damselflies in our state, please check out the guidelines.

Finally, the Ohio Odonata Society will be holding its 2017 annual meeting, ODO-CON-17 on 23-25 June at the Grand River Conservation Campus in Rock Creek, OH.

Damselfly in Columbus, Ohio.
Dragonfly at Magee Marsh Wildlife Area.
Halloween pennant. Specimen from the Triplehorn Insect Collection.
Dragonfly on window screen in Columbus, Ohio.
Close-up of dragonfly on window screen in Columbus, Ohio.

Resources:

Photos by L. Musetti (dragonflies) & Huayan Chen (damselfly).

About the Author: Dr. Norman F. Johnson is an Entomologist, Professor at Ohio State University, and Director of the Triplehorn Insect Collection.

Backyard Bug Explorer

Visitors touring the Triplehorn Insect Collection are invariably drawn to the biggest, longest, most colorful creatures that we have among our four million specimens. Giant walking sticks, Goliath beetles, white witch moths, and birdwing butterflies are a sure hit with visitors of all ages.  One question that usually follows that exhilarating experience is … “Are these from Ohio?” And, unfortunately, we have to say that no, those enormous and colorful insects come from tropical forests in Africa or South America or elsewhere.

That is not to say, though, that there aren’t plenty of interesting and very striking insects in Ohio. In fact, there are plenty of cool insects right in our own backyards, many of them still poorly known or even completely unknown to science.

Here are just a few examples of the insect fauna that I found in my urban backyard in the past few weeks.

Bees & bee nests

During Spring, carpenter bees and bumble bees are very busy building their nests and collecting pollen. Well, that’s true of the female bees, anyway. The male carpenter bees are far too worried about patrolling their territory and checking out everything that comes along, all in the hope of finding a female that might be susceptible to their charms. Not to worry: the males are harmless, and you’d practically have to grab hold of a female before she would think of stinging.

 

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Under a clay pot that was left leaning against a wall, a queen bumble bee has dug a hole into the soil where she’s starting her own colony. The same sort of gardening accessories are also great places for spiders to build their webs and for insects to hide away their eggs from predators.

Clay pottery left in the backyard over the winter serves as perfect shelter for bumble bee nest
I was not fast enough to snap a photo of the bumble bee entering the nest. But trust me, she’s there!
Upside down clay pots left in the backyard over the winter now house spider webs and insect eggs

Wasp nests

A mud-nesting solitary wasp found the perfect place to build her nest among the wrinkles of a deteriorating plastic cover on an old outdoor fireplace in our yard.  This might be a mud dauber or perhaps a potter wasp nest. Either way, the mother wasp builds the nest using soft mud, then goes hunting for caterpillars or other insects.  The prey – stung into a state of suspended animation – is stuffed into the nest accompanied by a single wasp egg.  The larva that later hatches will feed on the living prey and develop into a new flying adult wasp.

Solitary wasp nest in the shape of a tube. The female wasp builds the next with soft clay.
The fragile nest broke in two when I moved the plastic.
Notice the empty cocoon.

Insect eggs (my all time favorite)

The most exciting finds for me are insect eggs. Sometimes the eggs are parasitized and produce the little wasps that are my object of study. Here on our screen door I found the eggs of an assassin bug. Each egg is like a small piece of art in itself each with a beautiful ornate crown. I’ve been watching carefully to see if assassin bug nymphs will emerge or if the eggs will produce any of my parasitic wasps.

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Ants

When I rolled over a log, I found a number of Lasius interjectus.  These bright yellow ants are commonly called “citronella ants.” If you disturb them, they respond by releasing a bouquet of repellent chemicals that smell like lemon or the citronella candles used to repel mosquitoes. These ants are farmers: they maintain underground “herds” of aphids or mealybugs. These “cows” feed on the fluids in plant roots and excrete a sweet honeydew that the ants love.

A small log resting over a bed of leaf litter holds a surprise: a colony of ants!
Citronella ants under a log in the backyard.

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Here’s a quick video of the citronella ants. They are very cute!

Beetle larvae

I love looking for insects on, in, and under dead trees. Recently I found quite a number of very slick and shiny beetle larvae beneath the bark of a large dead tree near our house. I actually don’t know what kind of beetles they are, but I am hoping my buddies who study beetles will be able to identify them. And who knows, maybe I found something entirely new?!

Small patch of trees and shrubs in our neighborhood.
Rotting log & leaf litter, perfect habitat for many insects.
Close-up of the log, with bark poke-marked by insect burrows.
Multiple beetle larvae found under the bark of a rotting log.
Close up of one of the beetle larvae found under the bark of a rotting log.
Close-up of a smaller beetle larva found under the bark of a rotting log.

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When disturbed the larvae move deeper into the soft wood.

I have more photos and videos of local insects, but I’ll stop here for now.  Yes, I know, the local bugs are not massive and showy like the amazing things that come from tropical rain forests, but pay close attention and you will find that they are just as fascinating. And best of all, they are right here in our backyard!

 Insects are everywhere. The more we learn about them the more we see how absolutely fascinating, beautiful, and important they are.

 

So take your family outside the house and go explore. Look around your backyard, watch for signs of insects, check out the flowers, the underside of tree leaves, listen to the buzz of the bees and see what they are doing.  Notice the differences between a bumble bee and a carpenter bee and other bees (get more info here.)

A final note: Monday, May 22, is the International Day for Biological Diversity. People all over the world and here in Ohio will be celebrating the day with the goal of increasing understanding and awareness about biodiversity, and to have a good time observing nature.

What a great opportunity to connect with fellow bug explorers and to promote the insect biodiversity that is right around us! Post your discoveries, photos, and musings about Ohio insects on social media. Use the hash tag #OhioBugs so we can keep in touch.

Hope to see you out there!

About the Author: Dr. Luciana Musetti is an Entomologist and the current Curator of the Triplehorn Insect Collection at The Ohio State University.

facebook.com/TriplehornInsectCollection

Follow on Tweeter or Instagram: @osuc_curator

Our big day is tomorrow

Tomorrow, Saturday April 22, from 10 AM – 4 PM we will open our doors and welcome all of you to visit our hidden treasures in the natural history collections of The Ohio State University. Stop by and talk to the curators who meticulously keep these specimens and make them available to students and researchers for study throughout the year. This is your chance each year to see what we do and to support our efforts.

The event is FREE and so is parking. We will have many activities for children including face painting, the very popular bugs-in-goo, a live arthropod zoo … and this year new, for anyone over 15 years, guided sessions on scientific illustration, drawing natural history specimens.

Enjoy some photos from last year events

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The set-up for tomorrow is in full swing, here is what I have seen so far

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About the Author: Angelika Nelson is curator of the Borror Laboratory of Bioacoustics and coordinates social media and outreach at the museum.

*** We hope to see you tomorrow ***

Everyday Life at the Museum-part 1

Visitors to our Annual Open House – by the way, the next Open House is coming up soon on Saturday April 22, 2017 – often wonder what everyday life in our museum collections looks like. During the Open House we showcase specimens in fabulous displays but how do we accession and maintain specimens throughout the year? To find out I took a walk through our building on a weekday morning and stopped by each collection to get a snapshot of our students’ and staff’ workdays. Watch the short videos below to get some behind the scenes insights and see how important the help of OSU undergraduate students is for our collections.

In the Borror Laboratory of Bioacoustics Evolution and Ecology major Morgan VanDeCarr digitizes recordings of House Finches Haemorhous mexicanus. The song of these birds was recorded onto a reel-to-reel tape by researcher Erik Bitterbaum at Occidental College in 1976.

In the Triplehorn insect collection Art major Katherine Beigel takes images of tiny insect specimens under a microscope and stacks them into one composite image using special software. Here she shows us a Coleoptera, beetle specimen.

In the Acarology collection Dr. Hans Klompen, Professor in the OSU department of Evolution, Ecology & Organismal Biology, talks to a student. The tick and mite specimens are neatly shelved and ready for the next Acarology Summer Program (June 19 – July 7).

In the Tetrapods collection Evolution and Ecology major Chelsea Hothem updates location information in the computer database. To get accurate data she often goes back to the specimens and reads information on the tags.

We will look behind the scenes in the herbarium, the mollusc and the fish collection on Friday!

 

About the Author: Angelika Nelson is curator of the Borror Laboratory of Bioacoustics and the museum’s social media and outreach manager.

 

*** Do you have any questions? We would be happy to answer them ***

 

Interns on Internship

As we mentioned in our previous post, at the conclusion of the semester we asked our interns to share their impressions of the time they spent with us. We have taken the liberty of using some of their comments (highlighted in italics below) to provide a picture of their experience.

“Insects are often thought of as the least appealing members of the taxonomic Kingdom Animalia. Even though most people recognize that they are, by definition, animals, people don’t like them as much as cuddly cats and dapper dolphins. Admittedly, this applies to myself as well.”

This kind of impression is widespread and can be heard often. By providing a broad view of entomology we hope the interns developed a new perspective and will now write that last sentence in the past tense!

To our delight, all the interns came out of the internship with a better understanding of (and some experience on) the wide range of skills and knowledge needed in curatorial work.

“Multiple tasks were laid before me throughout the semester, slowly building on previous knowledge and skills. … Originally, I had no idea how much time an entomologist may spend simply sitting in front of a computer. A portion of my time was spent databasing specimens, an important task allowing for collections to be easily found and identified. It has been made apparent how important this is when considering that millions of specimens fill the cabinets of the collection.”

“Through performing the … tasks, I was able to increase my knowledge of both the curation profession as well as the study of entomology in general”.

“… the only expectation I really had was that I would leave the internship having gained a lot of insect and museum-related knowledge that I had not had before. … this expectation was fulfilled with flying colors!”.

People have different styles of learning, and “doing” can often be more effective than listening or reading. The interns highlighted the importance of hands-on activities.

“… seeing the physical traits of different orders and families in person helped me to memorize these classifications for the General Entomology course, and gaining experience with pinning and labeling helped me to improve my collection project for the same course.”

“Whereas my entomology class was somewhat hard to grasp at times as a result of its lecture format, I found that hands-on activities (the same kind that are done by REAL curatorial staff in REAL museums) really ingrained a lot of the knowledge into my brain in a more profound way than surface-level memorization ever could.”

It is sometimes interesting to see how people react differently to the same task:

“I was able to further classify/identify the specimens by family using a taxonomic key. This exercise taught me how to use a key and how to look for specific features of insect physiology/morphology.”“Later came the classification by suborder and family, a grueling task using a key much like a personal narrative children’s book only with scientific terms and a lot of microscope adjusting. Though tedious and time consuming, I find it interesting to understand how such small characteristics may differentiate one insect family from another.”

Perhaps the most gratifying, though, was to see that at least a little taste of the fun and excitement that we find working with insects was also experienced by the interns:

“One of my favorite insects that I found while working in the collection was a cuckoo wasp, a very small organism but with brilliant colors that sparkle as if dipped in jewels. Everyway you turn the tiny hymenopteran, the colors seem to shift, ranging from a deep, rich blue to a bright metallic-like green with some splashes of vibrant red or orange. Not only is it beautiful but also to Dr. Musetti’s excitement it is a parasitoid wasp, laying eggs in a host species.”

Ceratochrysis perpulchra, OSUC 96424

Ceratochrysis perpulchra (Cresson), a beautiful cuckoo wasp specimen from the collection. ID# OSUC 96424. This is not the one that Ellen found, but similar. Ellen’s cuckoo wasp is still in the freezer, and will be used for DNA extraction.

Taking on an internship is a pretty serious commitment of time on the part of the student, and we hope that it turned out to be time well invested. We have all learned from the experience, and we will use what we have learned to continue to improve. Even if a professional job as curator is not in the interns’ future, at least we have made a contribution to a future taxpaying citizenry that will understand the whys and wherefores of an insect collection.

“The past ten weeks have been quite the eye opening experience for me. Science is tedious work that I am happy to tackle. I have learned things I did not know I was interested in, as well as things I may not want to spend the rest of my life doing. Not only has this internship helped me to understand what it takes to have a collection, but I also have a compelling experience that may help me stand out from the others when searching for a career in entomology.”

”Overall, I feel that this internship has been very beneficial to me as both a student and a person. It provided me with a better background in entomology, it showed me the importance of curatorial work, and it gave me workplace experience that will benefit me in future careers both inside and outside of entomology.”

”I was able to get a complete picture of what entomology is like in the museum world, which, to me, is the overarching purpose of the (internship) program itself.”

Snapshots of the interns’ lab notebooks:

2016 Interns:

  • Ellen Dunkle
  • Alexandria Ent
  • Hannah McKenzie

About the Authors: Dr. Natalia Munteanu Molotievskiy is an Entomologist and Guest Scholar, Dr. Luciana Musetti is an Entomologist and Curator, & Dr. Norman Johnson is Professor of Entomology and Director of the Triplehorn Insect Collection.

What We Learned From Our Insect Curation Internship

triplehorn-scarletbandLast semester we of the Triplehorn Insect Collection offered our first Insect Curation Internship. I was pleasantly surprised with the interest generated by it. There were over 380 visits to the internship announcement and 207 visits to my post “Internship, Volunteering or Job?” on this blog.  Fifty one (51) undergraduate students (of those 49 were women!) and 2 graduate students inquired about the internship. Of the 12 students interviewed we accepted 3 for the Fall 2016 internship. I also received requests for information from a few colleagues who are planning to offer similar internship activities in their collections and/or institutions. Here’s a summary of what we did.

Our overall goal was to provide OSU students, both graduate and undergraduate, with a structured, mentored, hands-on experience on collection curation techniques and the preparation of research quality insect specimens. Activities were planned specifically for the internship. Our requirements were simple: patience, attention to detail, good organizational skills and a minimum commitment of 5 hours/week for 10 weeks.

Interns received handouts containing our broad goals and specific objectives for the internship, and were asked to write down their own goals and expectations for the internship. At the end of the semester we did a two-way evaluation of the internship, from the perspective of the mentors and from the perspective of the interns. They also submitted a report of their activities and were asked to comment on what they thought of the internship.

From theory to practice

Interns received training on basic preparation standards and techniques used in insect collections, from sorting bulk samples to mounting and adding a label to the specimen, to entering the specimen information in the collection database. They worked on identification of the most common orders of insects and had the opportunity to take high resolution images of dry specimens. Weekly discussions involved broad topics of interest such as the importance of biological collections, why and how to deposit scientific vouchers in collections, challenges of long term preservation of collections, etc. Interns received handouts and/or electronic links to reading material related to our topics of discussion. Each intern kept a lab notebook with records of all their internship activities, with date, brief description of the activity, time spent on the activity, plus any difficulties they encountered, questions, etc. Those records served as the basis for their internship report, due on the closing day.

Challenges to offering an internship

Time:  A great deal of time went into the planning of the internship. We defined goals, developed activities, prepared handouts and tool kits. During the semester, we worked closely with the interns, individually and in groups, mentoring and evaluating their progress as we went along.

Space & Equipment:  We do not have much idle space or equipment in the collection. Work space allocation to accommodate both our working staff and our interns was one of our major concerns (and cause of stress) in the planning of the internship.

Credit where it’s due

Our three interns, Ellen Dunkle, Hannah McKenzie, and Alexandria Ent, were very diligent and focused. They set the bar high for future interns. I also want to acknowledge the terrific work done by our guest scholar, Dr. Natalia Munteanu Molotievskiy, who instructed the interns on general insect taxonomy and on recognition of Coleoptera families.

Sorting funOur goal is to repeat the internship offering in 2017 as we already have students interested. Watch for the announcement some time during spring and come learn how to build a top notch insect collection with us.

 

About the Author: Dr. Luciana Musetti is an Entomologist, Parasitoid Wasp Specialist, Curator of the Triplehorn Insect Collection. Find me @osuc_curator on Instagram and on Twitter

Show stoppers

The specimen digitization project that we are about to start at the Triplehorn Insect Collection will create a large body of information about butterflies.  Those data, combined with the data from all the collections that are part of LepNet, will be a monumental resource for scientific research. The information on the specimen labels and the images of selected specimens will be fully available online and accessible to all interested parties, from scientists to government agencies to 4-H programs to school classes to the general insect-loving public.

Ohio State has never been a powerhouse of butterfly research, nevertheless we hold a very interesting collection of these fascinating insects. For example, we have some butterfly specimens that were collected in 1880s (they are as old as the Statue of Liberty!). Some of our specimens were collected in natural habitats that are now gone, completely modified by human activity. We have representatives of rare and endangered species. The Parshall donation added depth and breadth to our collection. What amazing new knowledge will we gain from accessing all those data together? The next months and years will be interesting ones!

While we wait for the data, we can enjoy the beauty of the specimens in the collection.

Butterflies in the Parshall collection
Peacock butterflies recently pinned
Sulphur butterflies in the parshall collection
Moths in the Triplehorn collection
Oeneis chryxus from the Yukon Territory
Dogface butterflies in the Parshall collection
Butterflies to be mounted
Butterflies collected long ago, but pinned only recently
Detail of the wing of Saturniidae moths
Butterflies in the Parshall collection
Butterflies to be mounted
Tiny blue butterflies
Butterflies in the Triplehorn collection
Butterflies collected long ago, but pinned only recently
Saturniidae moths

About the Author: Luciana Musetti is an Entomologist and the Curator of the Triplehorn Insect Collection.  Photos by the author.

Ohio Young Birders visit

Eight Ohio Young Birders visited the insect and tetrapods collections at the Museum of Biological Diversity on Saturday (April 9) morning.

Ohio Young Birders - group photo

Ohio Young Birders with Assoc Prof Jackie Augustine (holding a robot Prairie Chicken) and curator Angelika Nelson

Jackie showed the students a comparison of the innards of a Cooper’s Hawk, Blue-winged Teal, and Mourning Dove, species that use quite different food sources. The students were a captive audience and got really excited when we discovered the remains of a House Sparrow in the stomach of the Cooper’s Hawk.

Crop content of Mourning Dove

Crop content (black sunflower seeds) of a Mourning Dove

Angelika presented some displays of bird eggs and specimens which Stephanie Malinich, curatorial manager of the collection, had set up, to the students. Both the extinct species tray and the tray with wood warbler species seen in Ohio were very popular.

Luciana fascinated students with stories about insects, how and why they were collected, what we can learn from them, etc. The students asked many interesting questions. They were particularly curious about the meaning of the term ‘biodiversity’, about invasive species, and about the impact of climate change on insects.

misc-centenarians

calosoma-scrutator Cicindela-obsoleta -sml

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About the author: Angelika Nelson is curator of the Borror Laboratory of Bioacoustics and co-organized this visit with Darlene Sillick.

Going where the wasps are.

 

On the previous post we talked a bit about visits to the Museum of Biological Diversity and more specifically to the Triplehorn Insect Collection. Today I want to turn around and show you what we see & do when we put our ‘research scientist‘ hats and go visit other collections.

There’s no walk-ins when it comes to visiting research collections. Setting up an appointment with the curator or collection manager is a must. That allows the staff to prepare for our visit, to set up work stations for us, to review the material we are interested in, and to do curatorial work ahead of our visit if necessary.

Collections welcome research visitors because that fulfill their mission of providing service to the scientific community. In return, visiting scientists add value to the collection by providing expert identification to specimens in the collection, and many times helping out with curation and organization of the collection.

When we get to a museum or collection, the first thing we see is, of course, the door. While most public museums have imposing entrances, many times the access to very important research collections is a modest door on the side of a building. The size and type of door absolutely does not reflect the quality of the collections inside.

Once inside, we have access to the inner sanctum of the collections: rows of cabinets filled with drawers filled with dry specimens carefully separated by group; vaults containing insect specimens preserved in ethanol, waiting to be sorted to family, genus, species. And that’s when our work begins!

During a research visit we usually: 1) examine (lots and lots of) specimens, dry or wet, under the microscope, 2) add identification labels to specimens that we recognize, 3) database the specimen label data, and 4) take photos of specimens (and specimen labels). Sometimes we do only 1 and 2, other times we do mostly 3 and 4. It depends on the collection and what we are hoping to accomplish during our visit.

Over the years we had the opportunity to visit many (many!) amazing research collections in various countries. Besides the collections, their rich treasure of specimens, and their dedicated curatorial staff, we also learnt a lot about the places and the people who live there. Looking forward to our next research visit to a collection!

 

About the Author: Dr. Luciana Musetti is an entomologist and Curator of the C. A. Triplehorn Insect Collection.