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Citizen Science Project About Ants

August 8, 2011 / Roberta / 0 Comments

My School of Ants kit came in the mail today and I realized I hadn’t told you about it yet.

This citizen-science project involves gathering samples of ants from near homes or schoolyards throughout the United States.

To participate you simply need to visit the website School of Ants, sign up, and order an ant sampling kit (the kits are free). Everyone is welcome to give it a try.

The kit will contain three types of vials. The blue-capped vials (they come with cookie bait) are to sample in a yard or other green space. The red-capped vials are for sampling a sidewalk location. If you have any other ants or even other insects, that you would like identified, send them along in the orange-capped vial.

You will need to leave the baited vials on the ground for one hour, open to let the ants crawl in. Then you cap the samples and place the ones with ants in the freezer for at least an hour (I recommend overnight).

You will need to purchase an envelope and postage to mail the samples back, so there will be some cost to you.

The ants you send in will be identified and recorded on a map. It’s that simple!

I would love to hear from you if you decide to participate. Let me know what you find.

And if you’d like to find more citizen science projects, try the Citizen Science Network. There is a project finder feature that let’s you search by keyword and whether it is family-friendly.

Bug of the Week: Giant Mesquite Bugs

August 3, 2011 / Roberta / 10 Comments

Related to the squash bug from last week, this week we found giant mesquite bugs.

These big bugs (about the size of a child’s thumb) seem like something from another age.

Let’s look closer.

I can tell this is a “true bug” because of the triangle in the middle of its back. Can you spot it?

Also, look how the wing changes texture from where it attaches on the back (at the right side) to between the water droplets. The wing veins run in another direction and the wing actually goes from leathery to more flimsy, like a piece of cellophane.

Let’s go backÂ to look at the squash bug. Can you see the triangle and the wing patterns, too? In this case the triangle is not a different color, but it is still there.

Those are clues entomologists use to tell if two insects are similar, and also what kind they are.

Squash bugs and giant mesquite bugs are alike in other ways, too. It turns out that the giant mesquite bugs will also produce odors to defend themselves.

In this photo you can see the mouthparts sticking down below the head. Giant mesquite bugs use their “beaks” to suck plant sap from mesquite trees. (The adults we saw were clustered around the green seed pods of the mesquite trees.)

Firefly Forest has photographs of the bright-colored immatures (nymphs) and more information.

Have you ever found a giant mesquite bug? How about other “true bugs?”