Whirligig Beetles

Growing up, my dad always made my sisters and I bug cages. These were little mesh enclosures that we could use to catch insects as well as small reptiles and place them inside to watch them, try and feed them and do whatever we decided to do. I suppose this might be the origin of my interest in insects. After gaining a more in depth interest into Entomology and especially changing my major however, it was then that I began to really realize the diversity with insects. One family that I personally find interesting are the Whirligigs of the family Gyrinidae in the order Coleoptera also known as beetles.

I had always seen these zipping around the water surface of ponds and lakes far and wide. Once I learned about them however I found out about their split eyes.

By splitting their eyes up, they are able to easily see above the water to keep an eye out for predators using their dorsal eyes while simultaneously looking below the water for prey using their ventral eyes. If you casually were to look at these beetles on the waters' surface you might notice the dorsal eye however most people would never imagine having a second set of eyes below.

All Waterscorpions

During the trip to Bouton lake, I brought a set of waders with me and used them to dig arouns the edges of the lake. Eventually I found a spot that had a very abundant amount of waterscorpions. These insects belong to the family Nepidae of the true insects Hemiptera. Though these particular species are considered to be water stick insects, waterscorpions are a much more cool name to go by.

Every specimen I swept up was floating just below the surface of the water. I wound up collecting 7 of these that I plan on using for trading with other classmates.

These insects are predatory possessing a beak used to inject enzymes into prey to digest the food an then suck it up. Their front legs are very long, slender and strong which makes grasping their prey much easier. In the area I found these insects there was a large number of minnows and tadpoles which would make sense. This is likely the primary food source of these insects in the lake. Despite not being the Luna moth I was elated to have collected, these insects do look very cool. True to their common name, they do resemble aquatic walking sticks. The extensions on the posterior end of the abdomen are used as breathing tubes as well which explains the lack of gills. Once I collected these I tossed them into ethanol where I left them until I pinned them in my Schmidt box. All of the specimens came out perfect except for one I let a friend pin for me.

These seem to not be very common in waters surrounding College Station so they should prove to be handy in trading with classmates.

Found a Luna Moth!

This post is a bit old, but I attended a field trip with my ENTO 301 class to Bouton lake where I finally caught a Luna Moth! I've been seeking one of these all semester and unfortunately do not have any high quality photos right now, so stock images will have to suffice.

The specimen I caught was in very decent condition, with a very light tattering near the edges of the wings but not in a matter that decreased from the beauty of the specimen.

Throughout this semester I've been seeking a Luna moth which belongs to the family Saturniidae. These moths are very well known for a variety of TV commercials as well as cultural references. In addition to this they are often considered to be some of the most beautiful moths in existence.

These moths are typically nocturnal so the best chance of catching them will be at night. In the case of my specimen, I was standing around a light sheet set up about 50 feet away from the Bouton lake. Around midnight was when the moth came by, and these are very easy to notice by the sound of their wings. Saturniidae moth's have very large wings as as such have a characteristic sound similar to a car or motorcycle idling in the distance. Once I heard the wings I kept an eye out until I eventually found it on a tree branch. The moth was about 30 feet in the air and indicated no signs of coming closer to the light. Eventually I tossed a stick up towards the branch to spook the moth which caused it to depart and head for the light. At this point I had my net ready and snatched it out of the air. I placed it inside of a sandwich bag to keep the wings from getting damaged until I was able to pin and spread it.

Before this moth, I had never spread such a large insect and as such was somewhat nervous which led me to ask one of my classmates that was experienced in spreading Lepidopterans to assist me.

I used the spreading board supplied by the class. I had frozen the moth while it was fresh so that when it thawed the wings were still pliable. First I pinned the Luna in the right side of the thoracic region and stuck it in the recess of the spreading board. Once placed, I used pins to gently manipulate the forewings into an elevated position such as found in this Luna.

Once properly oriented, I used strips of paper and laid them over the wings pinning them on both ends to keep the entire wing flat. Once the forewings were placed and pinned I manipulated the hind wings to a similar position as in the previous photo. I paid extra care to the prolongations on the hindwings as I personally feel like these are on characteristic that are very identifiable with this moth. After letting the moth dry for a week, I was incredibly happy with the results. After my collection has been processed, I plan on taking my Luna and framing it to put on the wall in my house.

From class I had heard that light fades the wings of this beautiful moth to a heavy extent, and if this turns out to be the case, it will just have to serve as an excuse to collect more.

Insect Pinning Block

One of the most important parts of mounting insects is the spacing. The pinning block is absolutely necessary to insure proper spacing between your identification labels.The complexity of a block can be determined through the number of steps it has. The more steps the more complex the information it can be used to position might be.

Due to the fact that there are so many steps on this example, you could provide some extremely accurate and detailed information on your specimen. This block has a total of 5 platforms. Assuming the top platform is to space your insect, that leave 4 levels of possible information.

The more traditional pinning blocks contain a total of three steps. As seen above, there are designated levels for each step and the information typically placed there. Pinning and mounting insects would not be impossible without a pinning block however it would be very difficult to prevent yoru collection from appearing visually sloppy. 

If you do not want to buy a pinning block, there is no reason to not have one as they are incredibly easy to make.

This diagram shows dimensions of a block that could be used when 1/4 inch plywood is cut and then glued together. 

There are four easy steps to making a pinning block as follows

1. Make the block from strips of wood 1-inch wide by 1/4 inch thick.
2. Cut a 3-inch, a 2 inch and a 1-inch long piece from your wood strip, and glue them together in step fashion as shown below.
3. Next, drill three small holes as shown all the way through the block. You can use a small sized finishing nail for the drill bit.
4. Then glue another 3 inch strip to the bottom of the block to cover the bottom of the drilled holes.

Following these simple steps, you can have your own pinning block to put together a great looking collection!!

Point Mounting Small Specimens

One of the biggest pains in putting together an insect collection can be from the need to mount smaller insects. Although this can be a hassle, these smaller families can prove to be rewarding once mounted as you can actually view them through scopes. If these insects were to be left loose, manipulation would be very difficult or even impossible.

To help with mounting these specimens, I'd like to post a guide that includes several pictures to provide useful tips and suggestions!

The first tool you will need access to is the point punch. This device cuts the miniature triangular points out of any sheet of paper used to glue an insect.

After snipping the mounting points out of the paper, you will then use the large end to stick the pin through and then use a white glue such as Elmers to glue the insect to the sharp point.

You must be careful to use as tiny a dot as possible do you do not cover the insect in glue. Figure 5 demonstrates the ideal placement of the paper point relative to the insects body.

Once properly pinned, you will then label the insect as you would any large insect!

Proper Pin Spacing

When pinning insects, in addition to the insect itself, you'll typically have several labels that serve to provide a complete docket of information on the insect. Proper spacing of these labels is critical to make it possible to read the text without needing to manipulate the pinned specimen as this can risk additional damage.

Usage of an insect pinning block allows the one mounting insects to safely as well as reliably position specimens and information labels. I will go into more detail later about making the pinning block.

This image demonstrates how a properly spaced specimen might look once being successfully mounted. You can see the insect is on top followed by the locality, date and collector information. Next is the host label or what the insect was found on. Finally is the family label that identifies the species to family.

In some instances, all of this information might be condensed onto one label, especially on a computer generated label.

To use the pinning block, put the head of the pin bearing a freshly pinned insect into the shallowest hole of the pinning block. Push on the pin until its head is at the bottom of the hole. This will force the insect into a position 1/4-inch down on the pin. If the back of the insect is not resting on the block, that means the insect is too low. (Remember, the insect pin is upside down in the hole.) Push the insect downward on the pin until the insect's back is in contact with the block.

To position labels on the pin, put the label on the pin. Then put the point of the pin in either of the other two holes. Use the same hole for all the insects in your display collection. You can later change your mind about positioning labels, but not about positioning insects after they have dried on the pin. Once an insect has dried, moving it on the pin risks damage to the specimen.

After following these steps, you'll have a perfectly spaced out insect pin!

Introduction

Hi,

My name is Rustin Pevehouse an I am currently a graduating senior at Texas A&M University. I decided to make this blog as a guide to help people with a variety of insect collecting items such as helpful tips on where to collect insects, step by step guides for mounting specimens in your collection as well as tips to help you identify the family of the insect.