TAMU Insect Collection open house 2010

This event was held last Saturday in Texas A&M. This time my hope was to gather some information on location for native species collection and mantis related publications. Also good to see another forum member during the event and some bug hobbyists from Houston area.

Some Stagmomantis californica adult male attracted by light



The specimens were collected in both Balmorhea and Presidio, TX (Near Big Bend National Park). As documented by Dr. Henard there are found in Western Texas.





A Stagmomantis limbata specimen (adult female)



The S. limbata (right) appear to have wider tegmina compare to S. carolina(left) next to it.



Some freshly preserve beetles collected recently, waiting for identification.



Ed who is the curator helping out in identifyng bugs brought in by collectors visiting the event curious to find out what they got.



Couple of funny pic on the Ento building poster

[SIZE=14pt]Wow way cool Yen I am glad to see you had a good time.[/SIZE]

Looks like a lot of fun! Glad you enjoyed yourself!

Still sorry I missed it...but thanks for the Stagmomantis comparison pictures!

Did they have any of the S. californica females?

funny pic! of course that's not where insects breathe through and their heart isn't in the thorax so it wouldn't be saved. I have 1 question. Why must people kill so many specimens of a single species for a collection? Seems there are several adult male stagmomantis in that one collection, isn't a male and a female enough? Why kill 4 or 5 males instead of just 1?

agent A said:

funny pic! of course that's not where insects breathe through and their heart isn't in the thorax so it wouldn't be saved. I have 1 question. Why must people kill so many specimens of a single species for a collection? Seems there are several adult male stagmomantis in that one collection, isn't a male and a female enough? Why kill 4 or 5 males instead of just 1?

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who said they killed them? idk about you guys, but I wait until they have died naturally and im sure im not the only one.

yeatzee said:

who said they killed them? idk about you guys, but I wait until they have died naturally and im sure im not the only one.

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+1 I have keep 2 dead ghost, wild adult male chinese, few dead nymphs and 1 dead bark all died of natural causes.

yeatzee said:

who said they killed them? idk about you guys, but I wait until they have died naturally and im sure im not the only one.

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+2

And one of the reasons for collecting/pinning/displaying more than one individual specimen is to have a significant amount of specimens to show uniformity in identifying characteristics of a species.

i'm pretty sure (almost certain) that taxonomists and collectors do not wait for their specimens to die from natural causes, it's just not viable.

chun said:

i'm pretty sure (almost certain) that taxonomists and collectors do not wait for their specimens to die from natural causes, it's just not viable.

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Yup, Entomologist put an insect to container with few drops of an ethyl acetate - They don't wait to natural end. An insect just fell asleep (if we can use that word) and never wake up. They just go to Ever-Hunting-Land

leviatan said:

Yup, Entomologist put an insect to container with few drops of an ethyl acetate - They don't wait to natural end. An insect just fell asleep (if we can use that word) and never wake up. They just go to Ever-Hunting-Land

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I guess that's just one of the differences between entomologists who seriously study mantids (thus the necessity of not waiting around until the specimen is old or becomes ill, or otherwise not pristine) and hobbyists, whose goal is to keep the mantids alive just for the enjoyment of observing them.

Interesting.

Katnapper said:

I guess that's just one of the differences between entomologists who seriously study mantids (thus the necessity of not waiting around until the specimen is old or becomes ill, or otherwise not pristine) and hobbyists, whose goal is to keep the mantids alive just for the enjoyment of observing them.

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For the sake of science, their bodies will be sacrificed. Though I can say that at least they were adults and probably mated before their untimely end. And Agent A, remember you want to show consistency and a vaible n of specimens. I for one wait until my mantids are dying or dead before "preserving" them. Anyway, great pics Yen. Glad I could finally have a glimpse of S. californica.

now I get it. only thing is you learn more by studying live specimens than by looking at dead ones :lol:

agent A said:

now I get it. only thing is you learn more by studying live specimens than by looking at dead ones :lol:

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believe me, it's easier identifying a dead specimen than a live one.

agent A said:

funny pic! of course that's not where insects breathe through and their heart isn't in the thorax so it wouldn't be saved. I have 1 question. Why must people kill so many specimens of a single species for a collection? Seems there are several adult male stagmomantis in that one collection, isn't a male and a female enough? Why kill 4 or 5 males instead of just 1?

Click to expand...

Insects are like people, Alex, one species comes in many shapes and sizes. The idea is to collect enough specimens of the same species to form a series. There are not only variations in size but in color and proportions. The identification of subspecies and inter zonal species depends on such seres, which may consist of hundreds of carefully annotated specimens.

The sensibility in which you are growing is very different from that which obtained when I was your age. Insects, then, might be killed, for convenience, in a cyanide or laurel killing jar, but there was always a concern that the chemicals would discolor the insects and the Natural History Museum in London had a pamphlet on "papering" (this was before the days of baggies), which consisted of placing a live butterfly or dragonfly, say, with folded wings, in a paper spill. Later, the spill would be placed in a relaxing chamber to prepare the long dead insect for mounting. Even today, first year entomology students are expected to mount a collection of dead insects.

I agree that. aside from systematics, there is more to be learned from the study of live insects, but studying insects in a jar is little more productive than studying a lion in a cage. So get out there with your camera and notebook Alex, and tell us what''s going on!

@kamakiri: Unfortunately there are only male on that tray. THere are also some adult females needing identification but i didn't check their wing color as all the specimens are dried and stiff.

@ Agent A: Well you have your anwers there thanks everyone explaining to Alex.

More native species, Stagmomantis carolina specimen



Florida bark mantis



Brunneria borealis



Oligonicella scudderi



Oligonicella mexicana - check out the longer pronotum (longer metazona) compare to O. scudderi



Other specimen besides mantis





It is a tradition to have a group photo before lunch, this year is the same. I have gained lot of weight recently but some should still be able to spot me

Very cool Yen.

Second on the left?

I was also at the event! Thanks again Yen for giving me a heads up and inviting me to come!

It was so amazing to get to go through and enjoy looking at TAMU's immense collection as well

as getting to meet people with such varied disciplines within entomology!

Here are some pictures I got, although unlike Yen I was less meticulous about getting labels in

so I have no idea what most of these are, and I'm terrible at remembering names. Hope you enjoy

them anyway!













well there is what I have so far, most of my other pictures are non-mantis related

but if anyone wants to see more I'll try to clean them up and post more. Now I just need

to practice with my new equipment so I can make even better photos next time!