Bugzombied but Happy

BugBlogger

State of a Fun Night:

I just got back from the gas station in Des Allemends that has no name so far as I am aware but does have a whole lotta bugs! This was a fun trip. My 7-year old, Max, was with me. Our first goal was to meet at Happy Garden II (there is no HG I) with a former co-worker of mine who was in Design and Exhibitry. The word was that she'd collected 5 large velvet ants (Dasymutilla occidentalis) as of Th. or Fri. In the parking lot I received TEN of them plus two other species of vlevet ants, both smaller but still quite attractive. She'd brought both her parents, both brothers, her husband, and all three of her girls (ages 12, 7, and nearly 3). So the eleven of us ate at the Chinese buffet that included every Chinese dish known to man plus boiled crawfish, shrimp, and blue crabs AND Alaskan king crab legs. In addition to doing the "Cajun/Chinese" thing they also have soft serve ice cream - NOT your typical Chinese restaurant.

So then ALL of us went to the gas station and met Gordon Matherne there (he's the guy who put me on to this spot in the first place). From the moment we were out of the car (9:00p.m.) I was bombarded with requests for jars, "Zack, come see this," etc. The four little kids were awesome and spent most of their time on moths, crickets, and medium-sized black scarab beetles. The large water scavenger and predaceous diving beetles took about 15-20 minutes to get hot and heavy, but with roughly 5 adults doing active searching, we collected 35 of the latter and 55 of the former in just under and hour! Since the purpose of this outing was to pick up velvet ants and get aquatic beetles for a colleague at the Brookfield Zoo, I'd call it an unqualified success. We had to drag the kids back into the vehicles.

Also of note:
1 female S. aloeus
2 S. dasytomus (hardwood stump borer)
1 Calosoma callidum (and at another gas station on the way home 1 C. scrutator)
1 un-IDed longhorn (attractive)
1 firefly
Several nice, large katydids of at least 3 species
1 Lethocerus americanus
1 conenose bug (Triatoma sp.)
1 un-IDed large sphinx moth (bark-like forewings)
Some nice tiger moths

- Zack