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.

Rainy Day=No Insects

Time : 9.30am
Venue : Acacia dominant plot
Attendance : Audrey Wong(yup,solo)

I knew it's gonna be bad when it was raining around 7 plus.. NO sunshine, NO insects. Apparently they don't like hanging out at the vegetation when it's not sunny. Nonetheless, I went and tried my luck but unfortunately, the trip today only proved that Miss Lua was right. That's what she told me anyway. So, I would have to go and do it again tmr morning instead..
Will blog about yesterday's trip later in the evening..
Yesterday was A LOTTT better!
Not to mention I had more than 10 mosquito bites on me today! No insects?=Not so true becos there's lots of mosquitoes which are also Insectas.. GRRRR Actually got one in my net but i let it off.
*oopppss, not so ethical!

Today :(

Malaise Day

Time : 4.30pm
Venue: Acacia dominant and Mahang dominant plot
Attendance : Alex Yee, Audrey Wong

Today, while waiting for Alex, I went off to check at my light traps..(mixed vegetation & tiup-tiup dominant) Still nothing. And pitfall- lots of ANTS!!(Hymenopteras).
However, I got quite a few wasps and flies in my Malaise at the tiup-tiup dominant plot. At least, I think.. Took a peep of them today. Will be leaving for 3 days or so..
At the mixed vegetation plot however, I got an Orthoptera. Which is quite suprising and somehow made my day because it was sooo pretty!! (:


The Leaf Insect


A pathetic bottle.. Too clean a bottle *sigh*

When Alex came, we started to set traps at the Acacia dominant plot and also Mahang dominant plot.. Which was quite successful because it looked quite nice-at the Mahang dominant plot. Thanks Alex for introducing that plot to me. The trees there are quite strategically situated for my trap. Haha.. I'm actually starting to fall in love with Malaise just because of the leaf insect. Here's how my trap looked like! Proud of them. Hope that they'll make me proud of them as well. HEhe... Thanks Dr. David for being so kind..



Something how my Malaise traps looked like

Yup, thanks Alex a lottt for volunteering and sorry about the mosquito bites you got.

Here's what I got as well. Don't know how tho..



So much for today.

Yesterday and Today

Yesterday..

Came back from a visit to the Supreme Court(Forensics Outing) and went straight to Dr. David Lohman to get the malaise traps. It was very nice of him to loan them to me and I was a bit sorry to have woke him up earlier in the morning. I actually called Janice because she said I can get the Malaise anytime I want but whooaaa she's at Malaysia already. hahaa..So, she said I can ask them from anyone in the lab. Unfortunately, nobody knows where they're kept except for Dr. David. And Enoka called him but he was sleeping *ouch* So I thought I should get them from him only today(tuesday) but somehow I managed to get back NUS around 4pm so I thought I should give him a call and get it from him. Yeahhhh.. Learned something new- NO procrastination when you do things on your own. Else, you'll never get anything done. That's what discipline is all about when you solo. Haha.. Yup, he showed me how to set them up. Apparently not as troublesome as the light traps(batteries are a killer!! As if you're carrying rice sacks into the field!!)

Date : 25th Feb 2008
Time : 4.00pm
Venue : Mixed vegetation and Tiup-tiup dominant plot
Attendance : Audrey Wong, Chen Dexiang

Set up 2 light traps unfortunately one didn't work. I checked the both of them before going out already. And they still don't work!! Grrrr Still left them anyway. Just to see what I'll get the next day.

Date : 26th Feb 2008
Time : 2.00pm
Venue : Mixed vegetation and Tiup-tiup dominant plot
Attendance : Theresa Su, Tiffany Chai, Audrey Wong

Set up 2 Malaise traps.. They weren't so hard. Just had to get the right trees to tie them on to. Hope they'll work.. Anyway, my hopes ain't high cos Dr. David said the amount of insects he got from Malaise up at the ridge was a joke. So, I guess I can only hope. *cross fingers* In Thailand, he got a lootttt more things. Well, what can I say? I've already noticed that the insects I got from my light traps were a lot less than what I got in January.. The fogging. Soon, there'll be no more left. Funny how the mosquitoes are still there while all others die. Yuck.. Imagine in 20 yrs, the only insects left are mosquitoes. They'll dominate the earth and be as bit as 3 inches! Ewwww..
Anyway, I checked my light traps. The one which didn't work apparently got a few while the one which worked didn't get anything! Well, nothing at all!! It rained yesterday. Wonder if it affects my traps. Tot it shouldn't cos insects are supposed to get shelter from the rain and fly into my traps and DIE there. *evil grin*
My pitfalls are flooded with rain water as well.
Conclusion : rain - no good for insect traps!!

Tiffany is a Year 1 Life Sciences student btw.. I asked her how she felt helping out today in the field, and her reply was.. 'It's complicated'
Her feelings were 'complicated'. Haha.. Not bad for a first timer? (:


Thanks Tiffany!


Post Malaise : Theresa looking for some reptile.. Taking a pic of it becos we didn't recognize which species exactly it was.


Found this at the Acacia plot.. Looks quite interesting. Some fungi.. Hope it's not poisonous.

Photos from Yeterday's Trip

Thanks Alicia for taking pictures and coming with me.

Twice in a day...

Time : 8.00am
Venue :
1. Behind S2(mixed plot)
2. Behind KE7, nearing NUH(Acacia plot)
Attendance : Theresa Su, Alicia Tan, Audrey Wong

Collected the light trap i set up at Acacia plot. Kinda happy this time cos it has got Coleopteras in it. With some tiny moths and others which I haven't sort out. There wasn't any time to go to the lab so I preserved them in ethanol I stored in my room. Haha.. Handy to have a few test tubes of ethanol just in case.

Pitfall doesn't have much except for ants which I've also gotten the last time so I decided to leave the pitfall there for another 3 days.

Time : 4.30pm
Venue :
1. Behind S2(mixed plot)
2. Behind S2(tiup-tiup plot)

Yayy!! Bashed in again. The tiup-tiup plot was a bit steep and slippery because of the leaves. There's around 5cm thick of leaves on the group which made it sooo slippery. Almost fell. Haha.. Luckily Alicia caught my bag(which she finally said useful). Very proud of my bag. Anyway, planted 2 pitfalls; 1 at each plot. Hopefully I'll be able to get something. The soil at both areas were easier to dig compared to the Acacia plot. It was so hard my hands almost gave way. Haha.. Ok, exaggerating.

Hopefully I'll be getting something on Monday morning.

Thanks Alicia for coming along digging the earth and Theresa for getting me the pitfalls.
(: