A fine ladybug (Coccinellidae) for the garden!
Found this Lep at the intersection of Barton Springs Rd. and S. 1st St.
Rent this U-Haul with Theridion grallator onboard.
Paul Davies – Insects & Society Outreach 12/6/14
For my outreach on the second part of Insects & Society, I decided to introduce Entomology to the students that I live with. We all vary in majors and classifications here at St. Ed’s and teaching them more about bugs and their importance would be a good opportunity to for all. I began planning my presentation by asking “What should they get out of my presentation?” Being that I might only have 30 minutes to persuade them of insects vital roles in our lives, I would try to ask questions, and the hope would be that they would ask questions as well… And they did!
My presentation began with the question, “What is entomology?” Which was a ‘no-brainer’ being that they have seen my net and heard about the class before, but it was a good start that they at least knew what it was about. My second question was, “What careers/fields are associated with entomology?” This question stumped a few people, as most simply said, “teaching entomology.” I then went on to explain research, teaching, military uses, agriculture, insect control, and forensic entomology (in case anyone was looking for a career change). My third question, aimed to surprise a few, was “how many species of insects are there?” A lot of the responses were low, but the person who got the closest was Anthony Longoria, a pre-med Psychology major, guessed ~1 million. There are about 1.3 described species of insects, with many many more to be identified.
Next we had a discussion on the major threats that bugs produce. This led to talking about crops and pest management, pollination and cross-pollination (I wish we would have talked about cross-pollination and insects’ role in speciation) as well as disease transfer caused by mosquitoes – the most dangerous animal in the world!
