Sorting Insects

Started from yesterday.. 3rd March 2008

Since yesterday I've been taking back the traps from various plots, cleaned them and returned them to the ecology lab. Then I s ort the insects out, put them into bottles with alcohol to be classified into orders.

Today, I finally finished bottling them and went to Miss Lua's office. Showed her the pretty stink bug I've gotten. Hoping that I could keep it but she said that it's not that common and checked in the collection for that bug's name but .. whoaa!! They didn't have it in the museum so yupp, I've to add my bug into the collection. She said it would be a contribution. Haha, ya ya.. for the sake of whatever. Nvm, anyway I don't have the means to buy alcohol and continue preserving that fella. The museum will be doing a better job. And as Miss Lua said, 100 yrs later my grandchildren will go to RMBR and see their grandmother's work. *speechless*
Who knows what will happen..

Then I continued sorting my insects from Tiup-tiup dominant patch's Malaise trap. Haha, there's this Hemiptera Miss Lua said was 'unusual'. She haven't seen it before but was quite sure of the order. The wings were quite pretty, black with a tinge of red. The most 'unusual' bit was the mouth/leg part; which cannot be identified whether it was a leg or mouth. Looked like a feather duster tho.., at least to me. NO, not a mosquito! *yayy!!!* New species.. Kidding. I hope so neway. Chances are 0.01%.
So, I brought back 3 entomology books from Science Lib, hoping to find out more about that insect.
That's quite about it for today.

Ps-Miss Lua actually said ant bites are Okay because termites are the real enemies for an entomologist. Not that I am yet. LOL..

Last Day of February for Insect catching..

Date : 28th February 2008
Time : 9.30am
Venue : Mixed Vegetation plot, Tiup-tiup dominant plot
Attendance : Audrey Wong, Kelvin Chin

Did sweepnetting at the plots.. And caught not that much but I had a very interesting bee which looked blue. I initially thought it was a beetle because of it's colour. Forgot that the sound it made from flapping it's wings is different.. , now that I recall. Got 4 Lepidopteras as well.. Hehe, a lot of fun the butterflies, but not so much fun killing them by pressing their torax. Felt like an evil witch killing those insects.
Just dropping them into the alcohol is very cruel. They tend to their wings so hard thinking that they can escape but you're just poisoning them to death. They're drowned!! And you go 'wheeeee!!!' I've got an insect. Imagine cannibalism being like that? Imagine other insects looking at you when you do that. Well, lucky them cos they can't think! Lacking of cephalization actually benefits them~
Crap, I'm talking too much of these things cos the project is ending. I'll actually miss being an evil witch..
Sad to say that the insect population in Singapore isn't large. OH and.., though i heard a lot of chicadas chattering around, I can't get them in my traps! Grrrr..

Oh, and thanks Kelvin for coming along. He's not an insect fan at all.. (:
They're not scary btw.