22 June 2012

DES ALLEMANDS – June 11, 2012

DES ALLEMANDS – June 11, 2012

A group of visiting entomologists, true bug enthusiasts and kids at heart for sure, from various parts of the country were in town for a technical committee meeting for the pest control company, Copesan. Including two of us from the Insectarium and Gordon Matherne, our group totaled 9. Dinner at Spahr’s was late owing to traffic woes, but we’d have been out late regardless – it was a terrific night!

As per usual, we set up UV and MV lights in two spots and also did some boating (I did not, and Gordon reported no efforts towards water scorpions). The flight was great, as was the perusal of grasses and weeds near the back boat launch.

30 dragonflies (a few at the lights, most from grasses)
20 medium-sized brown click beetles
~20 tiger beetles (T. carolina)
3 false bombardier beetles (we also a couple of true bombardiers)
1 Calosoma scrutator (yay!)
2 nymphal Carolina manitds
~50 cuban roaches
~6 Lethocerus
PDBs – 72
WSBs – 240
~30 Obscure bird grasshoppers (all nymphs)
~20 Oblong-winged katydids (all adults), including 4 yellow ones!

The flight was superb, and everyone was quite pleased. We did not get too many moths, though a few tiger moths and sphinx moths came in (very few). Walking along and hunting for orthopterans and odonates also revealed a host of other g-hopper and katy species and a slew of orb weaving spiders. Of these, the young Argiope and Nephila impressed, but most exciting was the number of starbellied orb weavers, Acantapeira stellata. Neat bugs! We also caught a few corsairs, one of which tagged a collector’s thumb. Effects (pain, which lessened with time) lasted about 4 hours.

Zack

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