When we arrived at Alley Pond Park for BioBlitz last Saturday, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I’ve always been, for lack of a better term, a water-person, so I knew I wanted to partake in some sort of aquatic activity. But unfortunately I was placed in Group 9 – the designated insect-catching team. The lead professor demonstrated two main capturing techniques that we would be using: netting (which involved specialized nets for aerial and aquatic environments) and sifting. The first technique required you to gently sway a net across clusters of bushes, low-hanging branches, and flowers, on which insects would typically be resting. The second technique required you to collect and filter out ground soil in which insects live. We then used an aspirator to “suck up” and collect anything we caught.
After being allotted 30 minutes to catch and collect as many insects as possible, we began to analyze and compare what we found. When surveying the amounts and the types of insects in the different areas of the park, it was crucial to take into account the variable of time; whenever we relocated to a new area, we made sure to stay within a consistent time frame. The most common findings included ants, mosquitoes, spiders, and grasshoppers. But perhaps the most interesting creature was the wasp mimic, an insect that is genetically coded to display the physical characteristics of a wasp as a defense mechanism against predators. Insects play pivotal roles in our ecosystem. Chief among them are their ability to pollinate certain plants and flowers, as well as their ability to decompose organic waste. Although we certainly did not make any breakthroughs in the field of entomology that day, I walked away with a greater appreciation for the importance of insects in the natural world (along with a whole lot of bug bites).
We made use of this specialized aerial net while attempting to capture & analyze a variety of insect species in APP #bioblitz #bcsfh2O pic.twitter.com/IYkiML5MMn
— Jordan Williams (@jordwill98) September 13, 2017
