Going thru the samples that were brought into lab was quite tedious and time consuming. There were many insects and plant material in the bag so it took most all of the lab time to look thru the sample. I was able to sort out several different types of insects in both the alfalfa and soybeans. I ended up finding 11 unique arthropods in the alfalfa and 9 in the soybeans. After sorting them out into groups by the mouthparts that they had i recorded what i had found. For the alfalfa i had 5 piercing/sucking, 5 chewing and 1 sponging. It was a mixture of Stink bugs, Leafhoppers, Tarnished plant bug, Grasshoppers and Flies with varying amounts along with several insects i was unable to identify. From the bean sample i found 5 piercing/sucking, 3 chewing and 1 sponging. In that sample i had Stink bugs, Aphids, Tarnished plant bugs, Leafhoppers, Grasshoppers, Bean Leaf Beetle, Cuccumber beetle and Flies with the majority of insects in that sample being Bean Leaf Beetle and Grasshoppers.
Limitations to doing this in the field would not be having a microscope to see the insects as well as i could in lab. Also they are slightly more active when they are fresh out of the net and havent been frozen. Having a field reference booklet with you would help to id some insects and would have helped in this lab when sorting insects out.
Limitations to doing this in the field would not be having a microscope to see the insects as well as i could in lab. Also they are slightly more active when they are fresh out of the net and havent been frozen. Having a field reference booklet with you would help to id some insects and would have helped in this lab when sorting insects out.
For my detailed drawing i chose to do the grasshopper as it was the easiest to view in the microscope and most litertature has some drawings of the grasshopper in them. At the top of todays blog i put the drawings i did in class as well as i have included some other picture showing more detailed images of the grasshopper and its major parts below here.
These three grasshopper images can be found at http://www.sidney.ars.usda.gov/grasshopper/ID_Tools/F_Guide/extanat.htm
This lab was a fun lab and it was a good refresher on insects and some insect classification stuff that i had forgoten since i took an entomology class. Some of the names and insect parts have come back to me now so hopefully i have them stored in the brain for this semester.
Great use of supplemental materials. Challenges were addressed and information was well organized.
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