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.