We thought yesterday was a mucky, swampy day. This one was just as bad. First, Dr. Kramer, or OMS (old man of the swamp) shows us how to get through the sedge habitat by wading waist deep in the sludge. Dr. Buddle in the mangroves showed us what the new fashion is - mud covered pants. He did keep his camera nice and dry, though! Today was a field day for our group to do insect collection in our focal habitats: mangrove and sedge. We mostly did it through opportunistic collection. We had a great time collecting our focal taxa, though we fell seriously short on one of them. We didn't get very many coleoptera (beetles), since it seems they are most effectively caught through flight intercept traps, which brings us to the malaise trap we set up. Malaise traps are designed for diptera and other flying insects that when they encounter something, they fly up. The only opening at the top is into a jar of ethanol, so we were able to collect flies, bees, wasps, and other things like that. Flight intercept traps are designed for things that fly and go down, such as coleoptera, and we all realized if we were to try and sample them, we would need a flight intercept trap. Next time! So, while slugging through the sludge in the sedge, while waist deep, I did manage to find a spider that had not been previously recorded on Barbados before. I found a dock spider, with an egg sack, which was pretty cool. Very large and hairy!
We thought yesterday was a mucky, swampy day. This one was just as bad. First, Dr. Kramer, or OMS (old man of the swamp) shows us how to get through the sedge habitat by wading waist deep in the sludge. Dr. Buddle in the mangroves showed us what the new fashion is - mud covered pants. He did keep his camera nice and dry, though! Today was a field day for our group to do insect collection in our focal habitats: mangrove and sedge. We mostly did it through opportunistic collection. We had a great time collecting our focal taxa, though we fell seriously short on one of them. We didn't get very many coleoptera (beetles), since it seems they are most effectively caught through flight intercept traps, which brings us to the malaise trap we set up. Malaise traps are designed for diptera and other flying insects that when they encounter something, they fly up. The only opening at the top is into a jar of ethanol, so we were able to collect flies, bees, wasps, and other things like that. Flight intercept traps are designed for things that fly and go down, such as coleoptera, and we all realized if we were to try and sample them, we would need a flight intercept trap. Next time! So, while slugging through the sludge in the sedge, while waist deep, I did manage to find a spider that had not been previously recorded on Barbados before. I found a dock spider, with an egg sack, which was pretty cool. Very large and hairy!
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