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2019 Spring Class
Insects Are (Mostly) Our Friends (Copy)
Instructor: Judy Feinstein, Gaby Howard, Cathie Murray, Kit Pfeiffer, Karen Simpson
Tuesdays • 3/19-5/7 • 10:15 AM-12:15 PM
Location: Randall 250
See an overview of each weeks class topics.
INTRO TO INSECTS AND THEIR KIN, and hands-on use of insect collection to identify insects to Order.
Hello “Insects” students and naturalist-teachers,
Thank you all so much for the positive and energetic start you gave to our first Insect class Tuesday. We are looking forward to the semester!
Sue’s powerpoint: Entomology Insects and their kin
Homework (Never required, but usually fun!): You were given a small assignment for next Tuesday. It is attached here in case you missed it.
Improvements: We hope to continually improve the class; please share your ideas.
Next week we will bring in some LED lamps to make it easier to see the insect specimens.
Sharing: Every week we will devote the first 10 minutes or so to small group sharing of recent insect encounters, so keep your eyes and ears open! Ideas:
Check the snow for “snow fleas”Check your wood pile for overwintering larvae, beetles or mothsCheck the wood chips from pileated woodpecker activity for ant bodies.
Communication: All 5 of the co-teachers have our emails visible to you in the address portion of the emails we send our students. Feel free to contact any one of us about the class. For now all the students are in bcc.
SINGING INSECTS: A Musical Communication. We will explore the different ways that the”singing” insects (Orthoptera) produce sound and we’ll learn to recognize different species’ “songs.” We’ll also investigate how these insects “hear.” And we’ll look at specimens up close to see these fascinating structures. Finally, we’ll create an Orthoptera orchestra!
Hello “Insects” students and fellow teachers,
Singing Insects: Nature’s Orchestra:
A 15 minute presentation by the two Cornell scientists on the reasons and mechanisms of insect song.A Guide to the Voices of Crickets, Katydids & Cicadas
Ortho Orchestra:
This is the recording you all created (Thanks to Lisa Bailey who sent this to me after class. For me, it opened up in iTunes and played. If you can’t hear it, we’ll see if we can package it differently).
Insects and their Kin: Fear, Love and Public Health
HELLO INSECT FANS 🙂
One way to open your eyes to unnoticed beauty is to ask yourself, “What if I had never seen this before? What if I knew I would never see it again?”
A few links to the information Judy and Gaby shared:
FROM JUDY:
• Cochineal Bugs Create Red Dye: A Moment in Science
• A very partial list of helpful insects
• History of the Boll Weevil Monument in Enterprise, Alabama
Rainbow Scarab beetles
• How a 17th century entomologist/artist Maria Sibylla Merian laid the foundations of Modern Entomology (thanks to Karen Janus, Senior College Student 🙂
FROM GABY:
• The BBC gents re: Why Beetles are Amazing!
• National Geographic piece about how Ladybird Beetles fold their wings.
• Gaby also suggested this report on how termites have helped people improve architecture.
First-Ever Look at the Intricate Way
Ladybugs Fold Their Wings
National Geographic
Here is a great intro to
creating and maintaining a bee hotel.
If you have a bee hotel already, bring it in to share with class. If it is inhabited, which you can tell by the tunnels being blocked off, you might leave it home as bees are starting to emerge.
Synchronicity: Birds, Insects, and Plants
Hello “Insect” class,
HOMEWORK: Next week Roger Rittmaster, retired endocrinologist and now Maine Master Naturalist, will help us learn to use photographs of insects to ID the insects. He will bring flash drives with Maine insect photos if you don’t have any. You can practice using insects you already think you have identified.
Roger has 3 favorite websites for this purpose, and he thinks if you learn to use them in class you will enjoy them too:
iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/
BugGuide: https://bugguide.net/
LepSnap: https://leps.fieldguide.ai/
- You will also benefit from bookmarking GoBotany, so you can be more confident of host plants. You do not need to establish an account at GoBotany to use it.
If you have any questions or concerns, just write back to me. Thanks! Cathie
PREPARATION: Please bring your laptop or iPad to class next week if you have one. If you don’t, you can buddy up with someone who does. You will get online using a guest password at UMA. Bring a surge protector if you think you’ll need to power up.
- If you have any photos of insects, find a way to make them easily accessible to you during class by creating a file, an album, or whatever works for you.
- Before next Tuesday please create an account for yourself at at least one of the following. Roger would love it if you would create an account at all 3.
Hello UMA Insect Lovers,
Just as a reminder, here are the 3 sites he introduced us to:
Each of these sites can be used to identify insects using your own pictures, or you can learn from the postings of others. The “iNaturalist” site can be used to ID many other life forms as well.
I was glad to hear folks saying they’d be sharing these sites with grandchildren, friends and other nature lovers. That’s the spirit!
I’m sure none of us caught all of the options with each website but we can help each other as we explore and experiment. Also Roger kindly agreed to help folks with questions, so I have included him on this email. Thanks again Roger!
Preparation: Bring your questions and ideas about IPM and gardening. Dave and Sue, who will be helping us, love to hear your questions!
Chemical Ecology of Insects
LONGFELLOW’S GREENHOUSE
Bumble Bees: Kalyn Bickerman-Martens, PhD candidate in etymology at UMO will share what she has learned about Bumble Bee Health; Impact of Pesticides; Maine Bumble Bee Atlas (citizen science). This may be the week we make “bee hotels” for native bees.
Wild Seed Project and Pollinator-friendly Neighborhoods and Flyways
UPCOMING EVENTS –
Thursday, May 9 • 5 pm
Kennebec Land Trust event
LIFE ALONG A MAINE STREAM
Reynolds Forest, Sidney – David Courtemanch and Tom Danielson, biologists, will help us explore aquatic insect along Goff Brook. Bring binoculars and boots.
Saturday, June 1 • 10 am
Maine Entomological Society
FIELD DAY and other MES activities
Hutchinson Pond, Manchester
Newcomers and experienced entomologists alike are invited to come and learn about insect identification in this ecologically diverse conservation area. RSVP to Dana Michaud (872-7683)
ARTICLES –
THE INSECT APOCALYPSE IS HERE
A New York Times report on the evidence and implications of the decline of insects all around us.
Class size 10-20 students
3 seats remaining
$30.00
This team of Maine Master Naturalists, along with guest speakers, has offered numerous Senior College classes in the past, from survey courses to deep dives into trees and birds. Everyone on the team has completed the rigorous year-long Maine Master Naturalist program. We offer these courses to share our excitement about the natural world. And yes, we know some of you have clamored for a Birds II class, but bear with us. We realized many bird species in Maine rely on insects for their existence, either directly as food, or indirectly through plant seeds and fruits arising from insect pollination, or from relying on food animals that ate insects. We are excited to explore the amazing world of insects with you!
Photo: Caterpillar of Black Swallowtail butterfly by Judith Feinstein