Misconceptions with Mom

Final Thoughts

After taking this course and rereading my first post about insects, I think my fascination with insects has grown; however, I am also a little more paranoid about insects being in my house. I don’t know if it is coincidence or if my research on insects has lured them into my apartment, but this final week of class I have come in contact with a cockroach in my shower and a baby spider on my pillow. Needless to say, my fascination with insects has not propelled me to pick up or become immune to these creatures in my living space. On the other hand, I have gone out of my way and have greatly enjoy observing these insects in their NATURAL habitat. I would have continued running around the lake without knowing about the millions of cattail larvae I was passing by. I would have continued to think of trees in the winter as bare and would have missed the silk moth cocoons. I cannot even begin to explain how excited I am about the baby mantis that hopefully will be hatching shortly. I would have never been so knowledgeable on the common misconceptions having to do with the earworm, cockroaches, and mantis. I could have finished this course without knowing all the insects I consume, but now that I have done some research I cannot believe the amount of information out there; I would have never known about this topic without this class. One of the main focuses of this class was overwintering. I had never before asked myself how do insects survive the cold winter. I think this class along with the books we read really stressed the importance of understanding the world around me. I was naive to think insects just go about their life during the winter as they do in the summer. Of course, they need shelter and warmth just like I do. In one of the areas, pinning, in this class I gained even more respect for researchers. This respect was gained was when I tried to pin the moths. Their wings were so delicate and the needles were so pointy. It took me a good two hours to pin three moths and the pinning was certainly not up to par. After researching all my insects, I realized many different species and types of insects there are. When you a read a fact in a book saying something like “there are over 4,000 different species”, you underestimate all the time and details that went into finding and researching those species. When you start researching online, you cannot imagine how hard it must have been for scientists to find and publish this information about these different species because you have trouble finding the ONE species you are looking for. The search for these insects is rewarding in two ways though, you are ecstatic when you find your species you have been looking for and you learn even more about other species that you would have never known. All in all, this class has taught me many new things I never would have suspected and cleared up many things I had previously known. 

Eating Insects

WOW. My mind was officially blown by those two short articles posted on moodle. I had no idea people ate insects other than on the show fear factor. In the "Earwigs Tail", the chapter, the yogurt beetle, was when I first learn that "some of our favorite food contain insect extract," said Berenbaum. Berenbaum commented on the claim, "the food colorants cochineal and carmine are made from ground beetles." I was hoping she would prove this misconception false. Unfortunately, she just cleared up the misconception by naming the real source of food colorants, which is a scale insect, Dactylopius coccus.  Berenbaum also provided me with the lovely fact that the shinny coating on candies, pills, and capsules are derived from the resinous secretions of Kerria lacca, the lac bug. A fun fact I found on a renovation website is: it takes about 100,000 lac bugs to make 500 g of shellac flakes. http://laughingsunrenovations.wordpress.com/2010/05/18/how-little-bug-bodies-give-trim-that-warm-historic-look/

photo of a lac bug from laughing sun renovations

While reading the article by Mott, I could not believe that half the people in the world eat a variety of bugs. I really want to go see a movie in South Africa because I don't think eating ants would be as bad as eating a cicada. 

However, the comment, "It's estimated that the average human eats one pound (half a kilogram) of insects each year unintentionally," said by Lisa Monachelli, was when I started getting nervous. It was then when I realized my outlook on life was changed forever. I also want to have a chat with the FDA after reading this… 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also allows certain levels of natural or unavoidable defects in foods, as long as they doesn't pose a health risk.For example, chocolate can have up to 60 insect fragments per 100 grams, tomato sauce can contain 30 fly eggs per 100 grams, and peanut butter can have 30 insect fragments per 100 grams (3.5 ounces), according to the FDA. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/04/0416_040416_eatingcicadas.html

What I don't understand is how these insects are so resilient. I feel like the act of making peanut butter is not a gentle process. When I hear fly eggs I question if the author means these eggs are still alive or dead and just decaying in my tomato sauce? My chocolate usually looks so rich and smooth and beautiful. To find out it has insect fragments is so foreign to me. When I searched this topic, I came across a wiki site that provided the percent of "insect filth" in certain foods. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Food_Defect_Action_Levels

I am still not sure what the definition of an insect fragment is but while searching so more I found this interesting recipe. 

110g high-quality dark chocolate

20 pieces crystallised ginger
20 dry-roasted crickets

Line a plate with parchment paper. Break the chocolate into pieces and put in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat for 30 seconds at 50% power, remove, stir, and continue cooking at 50% power in 10-second increments, stirring after each burst, until the chocolate is melted.

Take a piece of ginger, hold a cricket alongside it and dip the bottom half in melted chocolate. Let the excess drip away. Place each chocolate-dipped ginger and cricket duo on the prepared plate and leave in the fridge until the chocolate sets. http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/nov/13/grubs-up-eating-insects

Anyway, I think the fact that I just took a 30 minute shower because before getting into the shower I saw a cockroach run down the drain, so I kept my eyes on the drain the whole shower, making it hard to wash and rinse me hair in a timely manor. I don't think I am going to be able to switch my diet over to insects no matter how much more eco friendly it is. That is not saying I wouldn't be totally against trying some of these insects, but I don't think I would chose any of them for my next meal. 

The rest of Evans

This is kinda embarrassing but here it is!

Ruffner Mountain

Today, Tuesday January 14, 2014, we ventured to Ruffner Mountain. (http://ruffnermountain.org) Here we found many galls and some beetle eggs. We also saw a city overlook and visited a cave made out of limestone rock (See pictures below).

I found two different types of galls. Both were ball galls, but they were found on different plants and were different sizes. The three larger ball galls in the picture above could be a gall of the fruit fly, Eurosta solidaginis. These galls are found on a plant called Goldenrod. There is one fly in each of these galls and sometimes downy woodpeckers and chickadees break open these galls and eat them. There are also some wasps that can get into these galls and eat the inside as well. The inside of these galls are shown in the last picture above. http://bugtracks.wordpress.com/2011/05/01/goldenrod-ball-galls/
This is a really good website talking about the different types of galls. http://http-server.carleton.ca/~kbstorey/insects.htm

The smaller ball gall shown in the first picture is a hackberry gall. I am still trying to figure out more about these and will put the information in my collection paper. But, what I found so far, and I think I am right, but the insects inside these galls were adult hackberry gall psyllids. Another name is "hackberry nipple gall maker". Under magnification, they look like miniature cicadas. Normally, they overwinter under the bark of trees, but psyllids don't distinguish between "good" and "bad" overwintering locations so they also squeeze into cracks and crevices around windows, doors and siding. http://lancaster.unl.edu/pest/resources/hackberrypsyllids.shtml

The lone stick from a Hickory tree in the picture actually has a beetle egg on it. This beetle, commonly called the long horned beetle, lays their eggs on the branch of a Hickory tree and chews on the branch just enough to let the branch hang from the tree, soon to fall. The eggs hatch in about three weeks and the larvae eat on the branch. In late summer, the larvae pupate and two weeks later emerge as adults. Twig girdler is in the insect order Coleoptera (beetles), the family Cerambycidae (longhorned beetles) and the species is Oncideres cingulata.

Misconceptions

I picked the chapter, The Mate-eating Mantis, from the book, "The Earwig's Tail" by Berenbaum. I remember as a little girl being told something about the mating ritual of preying mantises. When I started reading this chapter, the familiar memory of female preying mantises eating their spouse resurfaced in my mind. I am also very excited about my preying mantises' cocoon. I have been doing research on these insects since I found this cocoon and so decided to chose this chapter as my blog post. 

The misconcention in this chapter is the female praying mantis kills and eats her partner usually devouring the head first. However, Berenbaum states that this isn't true, at least in the vast majority of cases. There are 2,000 species of mantids in the world and the phenomenon has been reported in only a tiny handful of them. And of the most reported cases, the sexual cannibalism has been observed in captive specimens and was likely a laboratory artifact. Berenbaum suggests that these mantids that exacuted cannibalism were most likely chronically hungry or malnourished. 

Berenbaum thinks this myth was started because it was documented by extremely eloquent writers in high-profile places. It was also published in Science, the premier scientific journal of the era and was written by Leland Ossian Howard, the future chief entomologist of the U.S.  Department of Agriculture. He had broughten a male mantis to a female mantis of his friends and observed the female bit off how left tarsus, consumed the tibia and femur, and then his left eye. The male continued to try to mate through this action and finally did the deed but after his leg and thorax was eaten as well. 

There is a common act of head removal in male mantis that leads to genitalic torsion on both sexes mantis. Reflexive erections can be induced in human patients subjected to spinal block or some kinds of brain lesions. Roeder does seem to think that removal of the head may free up inhibitions from the principle nerve bundle in the head that inhibit signals to the abdomen and thus, the twisted genitalia during decapitation can be filliped around and engaged into the female. There are also studies that suggest a male seeing a female eating her fill is a "turn on" and a male will move six times faster toward such female. Also males of Tenodera ardifolia are significantly less likely to court hungry females. 

What I gathered from this chapter is preying mantises do sometimes eat the head of their mate; however, this happens in captivity more than in their natural environment. And this behavior may help benefit the males reproductive rate by promoting intact genitalia. 

Other female insects indulge on their mates as well. We read in the other book about the male speckled cockroach (shown below). This male roach produces a phermomone called "seducin"in the glands on his back that the female licks while he plans his approach. 

photo cred by wiki

We also read about sagebrush crickets. These females eat the hind wings of their mates and lick the blood that flows from the wounds they inflict. 

Fun facts:

These majestic insects are sometimes difficult to locate because of the awesome camouflaging technique they have. They make use of their coloration to blend in perfectly with leaves and stems, even swaying their bodies in the wind like the leaves.http://www.factzoo.com/insects/praying-mantis-devout-stealth-fearsome-hunter.html

The mating season in temperate climates typically begins in autumn. The female then lays between 10 and 400 eggs, depending on the species. s in related insect groups, mantises go through three stages of metamorphosis: egg, nymph, and adult. The nymph and adult insect are structurally quite similar, except that the nymph is smaller and has no wings or functional genitalia.In tropical species, the natural lifespan of a mantis in the wild is about 10–12 months, but some species kept in captivity have been sustained for 14 months. In colder areas, females die during the winter. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis 

Class on Monday January 13, 2014

Today we covered many important and intersting topics ranging from chapters 4-9 in the book, "Life on a Little Known Planet"by Evans. Some of the things I learned are stated and explained below.

A myth that Dr. Van Zandt was told as a child was that dragonflies can sew your mouth shut. We, as a class, agreed that this was pretty terrifying and we were all very glad it was only a myth. We also concluded that dragonflies have eyes characteristics like that of predators and prey. We thought about some common predators like, owls and tigers and how they have eyes looking straight on. On the other hand, prey like, rabbits and mice have eyes on the side of their head. Dragonflies have eyes that are big and round and can see in all directions. There was a interesting experiment that we talked about in some detail involving the color of dragonflies. It was tested and shown that dragonflies which were painted black could not flash the natural white abdomen, which signals strength and confidence, and are more often killed and attacked by dragonflies that do have white on their abdomen to flash to a competitor. Another popular topic, was the act of propelling through water as a result of water leaving the anus in a jet like motion. The fact I found most terrifying was the dragonflies that once roamed the earth in the dinosaur age had a three footlong wingspan and the larvae was a a foot long. A link of a cool video of a dragonfly larvae eating a mosquito larvae is shown below. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MyL0a1JpvQ

The most interesting fact to me about crickets was the fact that species are temperature sensitive. At different temperatures, different spcies sing their mating song. Another topic of the class, was the fact that some female crickets chew on the front wings of males while mating, which disables the effectiveness of the male's chirp.  My favorite part of the class was when Bethany reminded me about the scene in Mulan with the cricket. The whole time I was reading the chapter I had the image of a cricket in a small cage and I couldn't remember where I had pulled that memory from. This is the link to the scene. I really want to watch this movie now. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjvHcXjAPxI

The fireflies chapter was a favorite of mine and after class I looked up some more information. Sadly, I couldn't find any pictures showing the light tour in New Zealand but I did find some information on the fireflies on Smoky Mountain. "Synchronous fireflies (Photinus carolinus) are one of at least 19 species of fireflies that live in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. They are the only species in America whose individuals can synchronize their flashing light patterns." http://www.nps.gov/grsm/naturescience/fireflies.htm
Here is a video of what it may look like, except everyone says it is better in person.
The last fact we learned was fireflies are not flies they are beetles.

The only thing I found interesting in the butterfly chapter was the mimicry and I already knew about this.

I did my "interesting insect blog post" on bedbugs so that only leaves flies to talk about. The fastest insects are flies. Flies unlike bedbugs can carry diseases. An interesting fact Dr. Van Zandt told us about mosquitos is they can tell how old their partner is by observing their wing sound. Dr. Van Zandt also kindly (not) introduced us to Botflies. They are many nasty pictures of these, but the way they are placed into human is interesting. These flies catch mosquitos in mid air and lay they eggs on them. The mosquitos then bite the human and these eggs are transferred into the humans skin. If one takes a shower soon after the bite, usually the human gets off with no harm. However, if not the end result is not pretty.

Interesting Insects

I enjoyed many chapters from Evan’s book “Life on a Little Known Planet”. I already stated two of my favorite chapters: the chapter on fireflies and crickets. I also enjoyed the chapter on Bedbugs, Cone-nosed Bugs, and other Cuddly Animals (pages 168-194).  I was relieved and surprised to learn that bedbugs really are not harmful to humans (they don’t spread diseases), they are in demise (at least in the Western world) and their bites can affect humans differently or not at all. It was interesting to note that bedbugs only feed once between each molt. Before the first molt the average bug feeds for about three minutes, the second stage five minutes, the third stage six minutes, the fourth stage five minutes, the fifth stage ten minutes and in the final adult stage the feeding takes ten to fifteen minutes. In-between each meal the bug hides in a crack for seven to ten days to digest its food (I hope, if ever, my stay in a hotel with bedbugs would fall on these “digesting days”).  The scary part to this feeding schedule is the fact that bedbugs are able to live several months with feeding at all. Bedbugs used to feed primarily on bats and it is believed that they switched from bats to men when they both shared caves a few tens of thousands of years ago. The different names for bedbugs are Cimices in Latin corrupted to “chinches, wall lice in German, hobgoblin in Welsh which we translate as “bogeyman” and “bugbear”. A common misconception has to do with the smell of the bedbug.  Some people thought the bedbug smelled because it had no vent but that is not the case.  And it is not the human blood that it consumes that makes the bedbug smell either because a bug that has never touched a drop of blood will still smell. The odorous substances are discharged from special glands on the thorax. The smell is hypothesized to be protection against their original hosts, bats. It is interesting to note that experiments have shown that bats will not eat bedbugs even if they are stuffed into their mouths and if a mealworms are smeared with the scent of bedbugs bats will not touch them. At one time bedbugs were used as a cure for certain infections. Bedbugs, salt and milk were made for an ointment for the eyes. And seven bedbugs eaten with beans were supposed to relieve certain types of fever. They really don’t have any adaptations to help find their source of blood they seem to just wander and are attracted to warmth. The mating habits of these insects are quite aggressive and have been termed “traumatic insemination.” The male punctures a hole in the female and inserts his semen there. The intromitent organ is a stout hook. This hook is inserted through the membrane between the fifth and sixth abdominal segments of the female. There is a small notch that guides the penis into a swollen mass of tissue called the “organ of Berlese.” The wound heals and a scar is formed on the female. Once the large amount of semen is injected into the female, it migrates to the wall of the organ of Berlese and moves into the blood of the female bug. The sperm makes its way through the blood of the reproductive organs of the female and gathers in little sacs called sperm reservoirs, where they remain until the female takes a meal, which is when the migrate up the egg tubes to the ovaries ready to fertilize the eggs that are rapidly fabricated from the nutrients in the blood of the host.  An interesting fact I learned was the bedbug’s sperm travels roughly the same speed as a human’s sperm. One of the last interesting things I learned about bedbugs has to do with B-group vitamins. A strict diet of only blood lacks the needed B-group vitamins so a partnership with certain bacteria that live in the bedbugs abdomen produces B vitamin in return for a suitable habitat. These bacteria are passed on to the next generation via the egg. As for the feeding on humans, the bedbug produces a substance from its salivary glands that prevents the blood from clotting for 24 hours. This salivary fluid is apparently what produces a reaction in some persons. Immunity can be reached by some. My favorite quote from this chapter is, “the bedbug is as innocent as a lily, even though his odor may not suggest it.” (pg178). 

If you ever need to stay in a hotel in Birmingham there is a nice link to check out the reported bedbugs in the area. http://www.bedbugregistry.com/location/AL/ 

And if you ever plan a trip to Chicago watch out. Chicago has moved to the top spot of a list no city wants to be a part of: the most treatments for bed bug infestations. http://www.pestworld.org/all-things-bed-bugs/bed-bug-news/news/chicago-the-worst-city-for-bed/

Even though Evan's said bedbugs were on the demise I found a report that states otherwise. The new 2013 Bugs Without Borders survey, conducted by the National Pest Management Association and the University of Kentucky, found that 99.6 percent of U.S. pest management professionals have encountered a bed bug infestation in the past year and that infestations have increased in the majority of locations in which pest professionals typically treat for bed bugs. http://www.pestworld.org/all-things-bed-bugs/

The scientific name for bedbug is Cimex lectularius. http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/bedbugs/faqs.html

Update

On Friday, I went to the lake on Birmingham-Southern Campus. There, I picked cattails looking for moth larve (picture below). Inside the cattails, cattail caterpillars burrow durning the winter and they feed on the small cattail seeds. I researched on the internet how to preserve soft bodied insects. What I found was to drop the insects into 70-90 percent ethyl or isopropyl alcohol solution. Or, one can drop the live insects into boiling water for 1-2 minutes and then place them into the alcohol solution.

http://extension.entm.purdue.edu/401Book/default.php?page=soft_body_insects

photos by catherine sandon

On the other hand, I have started to research my other insects and it is harder than I thought it would be. I had no idea there were so many different species! I used the google image search for the first time and I found out what the unknown insect from the forest is. I think it is a click beetle larvae. 

I have also read a couple more chapters in "Life on a Little Known Planet" by Howard Evans. I have read the chapters on dragonflies, crickets, fireflies, and butterflies. My favorite so far has been the crickets, but I also liked learning about the fireflies. The most interesting part about the crickets I think is the importance of the pulses. It amazes me that the time between pulses differentiates between different species. I also liked learning about the different colors that fireflies can emit. It is crazy how Ph can have such an effect. I would like to see these different colors in person. 

First Day in the Field

Yesterday, January 10th 2014, we ventured out into the Ecoscape on Birmingham-Southerns campus. In the small forest on campus, Dr. Van Zandt told us the best places to look for insects were under decaying wood, under the leaf layer, and on trees. Much to my surprise, the first rock I turned over I saw small jumping insects that quickly buried themselves back in the soil after being exposed. I soon saw Dr. Van Zandt flipping over cut up tree trunks and joined the fun. The first log had so many insects under it I could not believe how alive the insects became as the soil under the log was exposed. I saw and collected a earwig (the second bug in the picture below from top to bottom) under the first log. The second log showed much of the the same insects except there was one interesting yellow/brownish insect (picture below) that was a mystery to Dr. Van Zandt. The next log was again a surprise. We found termites on the bottom of the log. This was a surprise because Dr. Van Zandt said they are not usually found during the winter. These are the small white/clear insects shown below that have a darker brown spot found near their mouth. There were many beetles and cockroaches found under the logs (see picture below). It seemed to me as if the beetles were being crushed by the logs, but after picking them up I know that the log does keep them very warm and these insects get cold very fast. The most interesting find to me was the yellow/brownish insect. This insect was also very lively. Every time I opened my collecting tube this little guy would go crazy and would be very close to escaping. However, twenty minutes after being placed in the freezer it was as hard as a rock. Most of the class came across the same insects. There were some other types of beetles found. I learned that some beetles may bite or secret toxins so one has to be careful when handling these. Dr. Van Zandt also taught us the difference between a centipede and millipede, which is, a centipede has one pair of legs coming off of each body segment and a millipede has two. These are not classified as insects are actually arthropods. The last thing we found was a leaf with a sort of gall type brown, round balls attached to the otter part of the leaf. This was also another mystery. My job now is to identify these insects for my collection.  I can't wait for the next outing!

photos by catherine sandon

Cold Bugs

I can think of a couple of times where I have just been miserably cold. One was around this time last year when it snowed in Birmingham and I turned purple.  Another was when I went skiing my junior year of high school.

photo by Fran Sandon

I am the happiest when it is 90, hot, humid and sunny. Needless to say, I can hardly overwinter as a human I cannot imagine being an insect with no access to heat. Then again, I think about it and I am in awe by the fact that insects most likely do not think about finding a cup of hot chocolate or a fire or any of the other luxuries us humans have; they seem to have a life schedule, maybe varied among the type of insects, but it works.

Most insects overwinter by either freezing solid, finding shelter, migrating, or lowering their metabolic mechanisms. After reading about the different types of overwintering, I have deemed 4 insects my favorite “overwinters” and have done some future research.

The first of my favorite overwinters I call the “Einsteins” also known as Woolybear Catepillars. 

photo by Roy Lukes

An interesting fact I came across was:  “According to legend, the wider that middle brown section is (i.e., the more brown segments there are), the milder the coming winter will be. Conversely, a narrow brown band is said to predict a harsh winter.” However Mike Peters, an entomologist at the University of Massachusetts has other words on the subject, “There's evidence," he says, "that the number of brown hairs has to do with the age of the caterpillar—in other words, how late it got going in the spring. The [band] does say something about a heavy winter or an early spring. The only thing is . . . it's telling you about the previous year."

http://www.almanac.com/content/predicting-winter-weather-woolly-bear-caterpillars

I gave these caterpillars this name because of their unique and quite complex wintering strategy. These caterpillars use super cooling and antifreeze to survive the winter. At low temperatures glycogen is converted into glucose and sorbitol that reduces the freezing point. Supercooling prevents ice formation. So to sum this wintering up this caterpillar ultimately freezes, feeling as hard as a rock and then thaws. The catch is only the adult caterpillar can survive freezing the pupae cannot.

The second group of my favorite overwinters is the most shocking group to me. (Also known as Gynaephara gronelandica.)

 photo cred to wiki

An interesting fact about these caterpillars is that they “spend nearly 90% of their life frozen and only about 5% feeding on the tundra during the month of June” 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gynaephora_groenlandica

The most shocking fact about these caterpillars is it takes 13-14 years for these caterpillars to first cocoon then molt into pupa and then adults. 

The third group of my favorite overwinters are the MVP’s.” (also known as Owlet moth)

photo cred by wiki

An interesting fact I found about these is “many Noctuidae species have tiny organs in their ears that responds to bat echolocation calls, sending their wing muscles into spasm and causing the moths to dart erratically. This aids the moths in evading the bats.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noctuidae

These caught my attention because these moths mate and lay eggs during the winter! They are less likely to be eaten by bats and the larvae encounter less bird predation since most of these predators are absent at this time because of their migratory patterns. They have robustly thick bodies with short wings. They warm up their bodies by shivering, which also helps to set flight.

The fourth and my choice if I was an insect group is the Eastern Tent Caterpillar.

photo cred by wiki

An interesting fact I found about their tent is  “because of its layered structure, the tent is thermally heterogeneous, and the caterpillars can adjust their temperature by moving from layer to layer. They may also aggregate on the outside of the shaded side of the tent and hang from the tips of their abdomens to enhance convective heat loss and cooling.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_tent_caterpillar

This is my favorite because these caterpillars contain glycerol which is an antifreeze chemical! I wish I had some more of this in my body for the winter. These caterpillars lay their eggs in a bunch around a cherry or apple tree which then seals and hardens.

my initial thoughts about insects

I heard a lot about this Jan Term class from my roommate, Chandler, who took this class last year. I was excited to take this class because I enjoyed helping her catch insects, watching videos she had seen in class, and listening to all the cool facts she learn that day. I wanted to learn more about the specifics that define insects, since there are so many that roam our planet. I really like learning about different life styles of insects and how unique each one is. It is amazing to me that something so small can have such a complex life style. I think insects are over looked by many people in our society, may it be because of fertilizers, closed homes, or simply because of their size. I wanted to learn about the different insects around the world, but I also liked the idea of finding and studying the insects we have on campus. When the text books arrived and I took a look at the links on our moodle page, I was surprised by the amount of information collected on insects. My dad even enjoyed reading our text book for a few nights before I left for school. My mom also informed me of a childhood story about my love for insects. She told me when I was young I would catch flies and feed a garden spider whose web was on our back porch. We also would collect different caterpillars and watch them make chrysalis and then form into butterflies. We come in contact with insects everyday whether we are aware of it or not. In the short clip about scorpion flies, I learn so much about an insect I would have never have thought of even though it could have lived right outside my house. I think the topic of Entomology is going to be very interesting and I am excited to learn more about insects.