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Category: Citizen Science (Page 4 of 4)

International Rock Flipping Day September 9, 2012

September 10, 2012 / / 5 Comments

Did you flip a rock yesterday?

Yesterday was International Rock Flipping Day, a wonderful time to get your children outside to explore the natural world.

We chose to flip the same river rocks as we used in past years. It is actually fascinating to see how things change from year to year. Here in Arizona we had quite a bit of rain recently, and it was actually damp under the rocks. There was a definite increase in the numbers of critters we saw over the results for 2009.

As to be expected, the sowbugs and pillbugs (isopods) were abundant.

Sowbugs

Sowbugs and pillbugs tend to hide from the light, so are often found under rocks.

We found these cute, shiny beetles in two different spots. They may be the same ones we saw last year.

We also saw this little guy.

This year we saw a weevil. Some kinds of weevils hide under rocks during the summer, going into a resting phase known as aestivation.

We could tell it was a weevil because of the long snout, almost like an elephant’s trunk.

We saw some cixiid planthopper nymphs (remember the adult from Bug of the Week last week?). This one was really moving, so it is blurry. I included it because it has the waxy filaments forming a tail on the back of the abdomen.

I pulled one out for a somewhat better photograph.

We were happy to see some of the tiny snails we had seen before.

Just love those little eye stalks!

That is what I was able to catch on camera. We also saw the same ant species as we saw last year. I’ll talk about that at Wild About Ants.

Did you participate? We’d love to hear what you found.

Be sure to visit Wanderin’ Weeta for links to more participants.

Bug of the Week: Citizen Science Opportunities Ants and Bees

August 8, 2012 / / 2 Comments

For those of you who are interested in child-friendly citizen science projects, we have two special events happening this month as part of ongoing citizen science projects.

1. School of Ants has a writing contest for students.

School of Ants is the citizen science project where participants can collect backyard ants under different conditions and send them in for identification. This month the organizers are sponsoring a writing contest for students, with the deadline Sept 1, 2012.

Details:

  • Open to any student studying ants
  • Essay should be between 300 and 600 words in length
  • Be sure to include a short biography of author with photo
  • A photograph illustrating the essay topic may also be added (optional)
  • Multiple submissions are accepted
  • First prize is $500
  • Runner-up essays may be published on School of Ants website

See School of Ants for submission guidelines.

Even if your student is not interested in writing an essay, you may still gather samples to participate in the main part of the project. This video will give you an idea how it works and help get you started.

2. The Great Bee Count on August 11, 2012

In conjunction with the ongoing Great Sunflower Project, researchers are looking for volunteers across the country to spend 15 minutes on Saturday August 11, 2012 counting bees on flowers. If possible the flowers should be sunflowers (preferably, Lemon Queen), bee balm, cosmos, tickseed, or purple coneflower.

To participate, login or register at the Great Sunflower Project website. You will be asked to download a data sheet with detailed instructions to record your results. After you count,  you return to the website and click on the “Report your bee count” link to input your observations.

Just to be clear, you don’t have to have participated previously. This is a special, one time count.

To help with identification:

A honey bee is brown with not entirely distinct dark bands on its abdomen. It is moderately hairy and has four wings.

Carpenter bees are often black and the top of the abdomen is shiny, not hairy.

Here in Arizona we have many different species of solitary bees.

They tend to be smaller than honey bees and come in a wide range of colors. Some are mining bees, sweat bees,

and these brightly-striped digger bees.

Leafcutter bees are dark gray and have a pad of white hairs on the underside of their abdomen.

In general, bees tend to be fuzzy.

For more about different kinds of bees, see a slide show at Scientific American

If you do either of these projects, we would love to hear about your experiences.

Bug of the Week: Migrating Red Admiral Butterflies

May 23, 2012 / / 0 Comments

The news this week is from the East Coast.

It turns out that there has been an awesome migration of red admiral butterflies (Vanessa atalanta) this year, especially in the Northeast.

(Red Admiral Butterfly by Peter Häger at Public Domain Pictures)

We always hear about the celebrity of butterfly migrants, the monarch, but other butterflies migrate, too. This year the red admirals attracted attention because of the numbers that were flying. Take a look (Note: there is a pop-up ad).

In 2008, I wrote a post about another species of Vanessa, the painted lady, Vanessa cardui, that was migrating in large numbers here in Arizona.

If you are interested in participating in a citizen science project, the 2012 Vanessa Migration Project is in full swing.  The project leaders want information on sightings of:

•    Red Admiral, Vanessa atalanta
•    Painted Lady, Vanessa cardui
•    American Lady, Vanessa virginiensis
•    West Coast Lady, Vanessa annabella

Vanessa Research Home page tells you more.

I’d love to hear from you if you decide to try it out.

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