You can think me sad all you want, but I really find invertebrates interesting (marine or terrestrial hehe)
So much so that I can tolerate the mind numbing work involved in processing all the pitfall traps that Im setting and collecting at Arne.
One of the things that keeps you (or at least me) going is that its like christmas when something interesting turns up in the pitfall traps. Im sure I saw a minotaur beetle in one of the traps I collected the other day. But anyway...Im taking photos as I process the traps, of anything that looks better than normal in terms of strangeness or coolness. Ill update this thread as and when I have more to share. The page Im putting them on is available here:
http://www.yupyup.co.uk/photos/microscope/index.htmlThe pitfall traps were using are pretty much plastic cups half filled with a solution of Propylene glycol to reduce surface tension (interesting fact: Prop. Glycol is also a sexual lube among other things...). The traps are left out for 3 weeks and then collected and reset (replaced with fresh ones). The old trap fluid+contents are sieved and washed before going through using a microscope and picking out and recording all fauna. The data on invertebrate assemblages at different sites around Arne can be used to determine the "health" of the habitats (different groups/species indicate different factors going on). The work is part of an RSPB project on the impact of Sika Deer grazing on the heathland.
Were getting loads of ticks and mites. In one trap, over a 3 week period, a total of 94 ticks fell into a small plastic cup :| This was a particularly evil looking one. Despite the abundance of ticks, I have yet to be ticked whilst out there, despite the fact Im going through dense vegetation!
Cool looking spiders...
Ok, technically not microscope stuff, but it was too big. We get a lot of different and cool looking metallic carabid beetles turning up. So much so Im about to start to breed some funky looking tropical beetles at home.
Small beetle...
(true) Bugs come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colours. This one was a bit difficult due to contrast and its a crap picture, but its Elytra or wings were really funky looking. I dont think there was any membrane there, just the hard venation going on:
A fairly common bug with cool patterning:
Getting a few caterpillas too. This is some kind of bagworm I think, making a camoflaged tube:
And this is another one I pulled out of its "home" - funky patterning, none of us have seen that colouration on the harder parts:
