The traveling exhibit, “Facing up to Beetles: An Entomologist’s Perspective”, has been showing in Wayne, NE, thanks to the efforts of Dr. Barbara Hayford, Professor of Biology at Wayne State College. The exhibition was dismantled two days ago and today Dr. Hayford sent me the report about the various public and online activities they developed…
Month: December 2016
Beetle babies prepare for photo shoot, Step 2
Once insects are cleaned up (Step 1, previous blog), I run them through a dehydration series from 70% ethanol to 100% ethanol. This takes about 2 days for my small insects. Then they are immersed in HMDS overnight or critical point dried. It is important to remove all the water in the tissue because HMDS…
Baby insects, sonic youth
One phase of the “Beetles of Peru” project is winding down, so I am pulling new/overlooked projects to the front burner. Baby cassidines – eggs, larvae, and pupae – are needing some love and attention. I tackle these species stories in stages, first with fieldwork to find them and assemble fresh samples, second the requests to…