Becoming an Entomolgist

This Weekend

Wed, 30 May 2007 03:25:39 GMT

My girlfriend and I went to a park this weekend. We found a colony of bee swarming, which was pretty cool to see. I caught one of those, a wasp, bumble bee, a nymph grasshopper, and a tiny tiny little beetle.

They are pinned and labeled the best I am able. When I get paid, I need to pick up some better books on identifying and take pictures and post them to the Internet.

There aren’t any updates on school. That won't come until the fall.

Erik

Pinning Insects

Sat, 26 May 2007 16:19:34 GMT

In the past week, I have collected 5 bugs (4 sp). A click beetle, a honey bee (it was dying), a ground beetle, and a male and female iron clad beetle.

They all went in the killing jar (of which doing is taking some getting used to) and then I put them in another air tight jar to keep them fresh until my pins came in the mail.

They came on Monday, but didn’t find the package until Friday, so since I didn’t have to work until1:30, set to pinning them.

The click beetle was first and I was amazed that I didn’t crush it. He’s pinned well, nice and straight. The ground beetle ended up a little crooked. I set the ground beetles legs with some pins holding them in the position I wanted and let it sit for an hour. He was pretty dry to start with so he hardened right up. The click beetle has his legs all curled up but is TOO SMALL for me to try and reposition them, so I left them. The honeybee had one wing out and the other in, I wanted them both out so I braced the one against a pin. He dried nicely.

The IronClad beetles have been a PAIN in the butt! I read they are difficult to pin due to the hardness of their exoskeleton, but I didn’t think it was this hard. After several minutes of pushing SO HARD I was afraid I was going to destroy them, I got the pin in (and rather straight, not perfect). There is a little bit of exoskeleton (or something) that holds the thorax to the abdomen, that broke on both of them so their abdomens were hanging by some internal organs. I filled their thoraxes with some fabric glue and pushed the abdomen into the thorax and that solved that problem.

I have identified all of the bugs (I think) down to the Genus, and the ironclads to the sp. The honeybee was a guess. They are dated and the place I caught them is on the label, as well as the gender if I could determine it.

Pretty good for a first time I think.

I'm really liking doing this in a dissecting tray. I find it holds the pins very solidly.

Bug Adventures

Tue, 22 May 2007 02:13:14 GMT

Fun Stuff:

Went to the Bug fair at the Natural history museum yesterday. It was a lot of fun!

It was SOOOOOOOOOOOOO crowded but picked up some cool stuff at the vendors.

I got a butterfly net, a nice one for pretty cheap.

I picked up two D. granti larva, they have about a year till they pupate. My girlfriend picked up ten 1rst instar Bombyx mori. Yay for bug fun!

School Stuff:

I had a meeting with the school Biology Major Counsler today. It went well, she made me feel a lot less dumb about coming back to school. She likes how I've organized things, but thinks I should take a math on top of my Intro to Bio class.

I told her that I didnt know what kind of math to take, I didnt want to overestimate, but I also didnt want to waste time in a really low class if I can help it. She gave me the contact information for the Chair of the math department. I will compose the e-mail to him as soon as I am done posting.

So it looks like its going to take me forever, but a lot less than forever than I thought since I dont have to take as many GE classes for my transfer to UCR (if it happens).

My next post will be a revised class order plan based on the advice of the school counsler.

My interest in all things Creepy and Crawly - This history of why I want to be an entomologist

Fri, 18 May 2007 16:42:54 GMT

For as long as I can emember I HAVE LOVED bugs. My girlfriend asked my mom yesterday, what she did to me to make me like bugs. She sheepishly replied that I had always liked bugs, but that she had encouraged it. We had a pet spider we caught in the yard, kept in a jar, and fed flied we got off of the cat food outside. My grandmother and I went out to a field once and collected monarch butterfly cocoons and kept them till they pupated. There are lists and lists of these incidences in my life. I showed an interest, and my family encouraged it.

My brother is younger than I am, and he was in cub scouts. I think he was 5 so I would have been 8. One day they were having a special speaker that my mother thought I might enjoy, so she got permission from the scout leader for me to attend and watch. It was an entomologist. I don’t really remember her talk. I do remember being frustrated because it was so basic (what did I expect, it was a talk for 5 year olds?). I do vividly remember her collection. The rows and rows and rows of insects and other inverts that she had collected herself. She had a display of her field equipment and she had written on the black board behind her. "ENTOMOLOGY" I knew from that moment on that’s what I was going to be. I was going to be an entomologist!

For several years I was a hard-core insect and arachnid husbandry FANATIC (between the ages of 19 and 24, the last of my arachnid collection past away a couple months ago). My entire room was wall to wall with home depot industrial shelving with tanks and boxes and tubs of creature. Beetles, Mantids, Tarantulas, several cockroach colonies. It was SOOO MUCH FUN! I moved back in with my mother to get my priorities straightened out and to co-own a house with her, and the collection had to go. Most of it died and I just didn’t replace it, or I gave those that would live for a million years away. It was sad, but all right.

I'm now going to take a step into insect collecting and mounting. I had never gone there before, and this seems more acceptable to my mother and live in girlfriend. They are ok if they are dead.

I am very interested in the life cycles of potato bugs, so I may see if I can do some secret potato bug rearing. I would love to be able to get a couple generations going!

Part Two - Baby Steps

Fri, 18 May 2007 16:25:54 GMT

As much as I would LOVE to just quit my job, get a crappy part time job and throw myself into school, I need health insurance, have agreed to support my girlfriend until she gets her A.A. and must pay my mortgage!

To see if I can even DO school I signed up for one class.

Intro to Biology. It is a Friday night, Saturday morning class. That starts in the fall. (First class is Aug 18th, my birthday!) It goes towards my GE requirements but not the A.S. Biology Major Requirements.

I have an appointment with a school counselor for Biology majors on Monday and will hash out the realities of my situation (in 30 minutes hehe) with her.

I have done an analysis on A.S. requirements, their prerequisites, and have tentatively chosen the classes for the GE Requirements. Based on Prerequisites the below is a VERY tentative ordered listing of my 2 year college career:

Key: GE = General Education PR = Prerequisite AS = Associate of Sciences biology major

Title	Number	Credits	Type
Intro to Biology	BIOL MO1	4	GE
History of California	HIST M08	3	GE
Elementary Algebra	MATH M01	5	PR
Intimacy, Relationships and Commitment	SOC M04	3	GE
Beginning Ceramics I	ART M70	3	GE
History of Cinema	HUM M03	3	GE
First Aid and CPR	HED M05	3	GE
Dance History	DANC M03	3	GE
Intermediate Algebra	MATH 03	5	PR
Principles of Physical Science	PHSC M01	3	GE
Introduction to College Writing	ENGL M02	3	PR
English Composition	ENGL M01A	4	GE
Radio/Television Script Writing	ENGL M05	3	GE
Introductory Chemistry I	CHEM M12	5	PR
General Biology I	BIOL MO1A	5	AS
General Biology II	BIOL MO2B	5	AS
General Chemistry I	CHEM M01A	6	AS
General Chemistry II	CHEM M01B	6	AS
College Algebra and Trigonometry	MATH M07	5	PR
Calculus with Analytic Geometry I	MATH M25A	5	AS
Calculus with Analytic Geometry II	MATH M25B	5	AS
Mechanics of Solids and Fluids	PHYS M20A	4	AS
Mechanics of Solids and Fluids Lab	PHYS M20AL	1	AS
Introductory Chemistry I	CHEM M12	5	PR
General Chemistry I	CHEM M01A	6	PR
General Chemistry II	CHEM M01B	6	PR
General Organic Chemistry I	CHEM M07A	5	AS
General Organic Chemistry II	CHEM M07B	5	AS

First Post - My history

Fri, 18 May 2007 16:07:17 GMT

Welcome to 2baentomologist. I realize the username is rammatically incorrect, but livejournal limits usernames to 15 characters.

I started this journal to document my journey back to school and, ultimately, to some kind of college degree. My goal right now is to get an A.S. and move onto a UC (I'm in california).

But first, a little more about my history, and how I got where I am.

I am 25 (26 in august). When I was 16, I took the CHSPE (California Highschool Proficiency Exam) and passed. Its a program that is designed for kids that want to get the heck out of highschool and get into college soon but want the piece of paper. I took the test because I was tired of being in highschool, I had a couple life events triggered mental health issues, and because of those issues, I was low on credits.

Right after passing I went straight onto community college. Being 16, and now in a world of 20 to 25 year olds, I got distracted. I made several bad choices, such as skipping classes to play Roleplaying games, started drinking, dropped out of college and got a job.

At about 19, I realized my stupidity and started working on trying to get back into school. I am now in a position in life where I can GO BACK!!!!!!

I am currently a business analyst. I love my job. Its interesting, and stimulating, but not overwhelmingly so. Because of my income and the fact that I am comfortable with my job, I believe this is the time to go back to school.