I had always admired the ongoing work on aphids, spearheaded by Bob and Pat. Their work is always relevant, meticulous, framed in an important and broader ecological context, and they have a ‘model system’ to work with. This is the kind of researcher many more junior entomologists look up to. The current paper is no exception. In this work, Bob and Pat joined up with Andrei Alyokhin and present a careful study of population variability and effectively use this metric to better understand population dynamics over time. For me, I see much value in this approach, and can see how this kind of work could effectively be used in teaching students about how to best describe, understand, and quantify population dynamics. I’m also inspired to see long-term data with arthropods. These kinds of data are so useful, but relatively rare. It’s great to see Bob, Pat and Andrei publish thoughtful and important work using such data. I may also look around some old filing cabinets at my University…
Bob was kind enough to answer a few questions about this work, with input from his co-authors.
What inspired this work?
When Pat MacKay and I were anticipating eventual retirement from paying jobs as entomologists, we decided to begin a study of an aphid population that could be pursued as long as we could walk trails and count aphids. Our goal was to figure out why aphid populations seem to be so unstable. Eventually we wrote up our findings on the stability of one native species over the first 10 years of a study we hope will go on for at least another 10 years. A few years ago we realized we needed comparative data, but were too old to start on a 20-year study of another aphid species. The solution was to write to colleagues who also had long-term data sets, to see if they were interested in looking at their data from this perspective. So far the colleagues we have contacted have been enthusiastic collaborators. The first was Andrei Alyokhin our coauthor on the current paper. He gave us access to 60 years of data on three aphid species. The first paper on the stability of these aphids was published in the Canadian Entomologist two years ago. The current paper extends that earlier work, looking now at how aphid seasonal biology affects our estimates of stability.
Bob Lamb, sporting “aphid hunting gear”
What do you hope will be the lasting impact of this paper?
We hope that this paper will help convince other researchers that Joel Heath’s metric, PV, which we use to quantify population variability, is a robust way to quantify one aspect of the stability of populations. If more researchers adopt this metric, ecologists will have a much greater opportunity to apply a comparative approach and identify factors that contribute to stability or instability of populations.
Where will your next line of research on this topic take you?
Pat MacKay and I continue to extend our time series on the abundance of a native aphid, and are now focusing more on the ecological processes that cause our five populations to rise and fall. We also hope to expand our studies of stability to still more aphid species, but also species with very different life histories. At the moment I am working with a colleague, Terry Galloway, University of Manitoba, on several time-series of ectoparasite abundance on birds.
Do you have any interesting anecdotes about this research?
One of the most interesting aspects of the work on aphids from potatoes is the source of the data – 60 years or more of weekly aphid counts. The data for the early years were discovered by Andrei Alyokhin in an abandoned filing cabinet stored in a barn at the University of Maine. Andrei was a new faculty member at the time exploring his research facilities. His predecessors had maintained meticulous records of aphid densities in potato plots since soon after World War II. Andrei was quick to recognize the value of this data, and more importantly recognized the need to go on collecting the data in the same way. The result is an amazing data set, one of the longest continuous records at one location of the dynamics of multi-voltine species.
Lesson 1: newly-hired entomologists should begin their careers by searching old filing cabinets.
Lesson 2: meticulous long-term records can be invaluable, sometime in ways that you might not anticipate.
Andrei discovering data in old filing cabinets
Lamb R.J., MacKay P.A. & Alyokhin A. (2013). Seasonal dynamics of three coexisting aphid species: implications for estimating population variability, The Canadian Entomologist, 145 (03) 283-291. DOI: 10.4039/tce.2013.1
http://esc-sec.ca/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/ESC_logo-300x352.png00Morgan Jacksonhttp://esc-sec.ca/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/ESC_logo-300x352.pngMorgan Jackson2013-06-21 06:00:332019-11-14 21:28:36From filing cabinets to fieldwork: an investigation into Aphid population variability
The latest Bulletin of the Entomological Society of Canada was recently released, and contains wide array of interesting entomological articles including:
regular features like letters from the ESC President, Dear Buggy, The Student Wing and The Last Word;
a trip report from University of Guelph entomologists riding the rails & looking for insects along the railroad to Churchill, Manitoba;
a biography of Canadian entomologist Léon Provancher;
book reviews, meeting updates, and much, much more!
The Entomological Society of Ontario has published their spring newsletter, with information on a new ESO Sesquicentennial Graduate Student Award, the ESO Bug Eye Photo Contest, the upcoming ESC-ESO JAM to be held in Guelph this fall, and plenty of other interesting information. You can read the ESO Spring 2013 Newsletter here.
The Entomological Society of Saskatchewan also has their spring newsletter available. With articles on entomology outreach close to home, a fascinating report from Owen Olfert about his recent trip to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (sometimes referred to as North Korea) to help with insect monitoring projects in agricultural environments, and early details about the 2014 ESC-ESS JAM being held in Saskatoon. Go West (or East for those of you in Alberta & British Columbia) and learn all about the great entomology work being done in Saskatchewan.
A year ago, an exciting new collaboration was initiated between the ESC and the Royal Canadian Mint. This collaboration grew from a letter sent by then President, Michel Cusson, and myself as chair of the Scientific Policy and Education committee, to the Mint commending them for the inclusion of insects on Canadian coins and offering the services of the ESC as a resource for the development of future insect coins. The response from the Mint was very warm and they immediately invited the ESC to be involved in the Animal Architects coin series.
The Animal Architects coin series celebrates the “exceptional architects of Canada’s animal world and their unique constructions”. I was thrilled to see that the first coin in this new series has recently been released, depicting an iconic insect architect, the honeybee, with its hive.
The Mint also decided to recognize the involvement of the ESC in this series and, in 2013, to commemorate the Sesquicentennial of the ESC on the certificates of authenticity that accompany the coins.
The Bee & Hive coin has proven to be extremely popular and is selling rapidly. The depiction of insects on coins helps to increase appreciation for nature in general, and insects in particular, among the Canadian and coin-collecting public. I hope you will consider supporting this endeavour by treating yourself or a loved one to one or all of the coins in this series.
http://esc-sec.ca/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/ESC_logo-300x352.png00Morgan Jacksonhttp://esc-sec.ca/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/ESC_logo-300x352.pngMorgan Jackson2013-05-30 17:12:072019-11-14 21:28:34The Royal Canadian Mint’s “Animal Architects” Coin Series Celebrates Insects and the ESC!
By David McCorquodale, Dean of Science and Technology, Cape Breton University
There is a perception that Nova Scotia and Cape Breton (where I live) may be subject to an invasion of cicadas. The perception seems to stem from the mass emergence of cicadas in the northeastern USA this spring and summer. What an opportunity to build suspense and stress! Consider this headline from Design and Trend on 09 May 2013: CICADAPOCALYPSE: Mass Exodus from the Ground. A Google search revealed dozens of similar, but admittedly not as sensationalist, headlines from news outlets in the northeastern US and a few in Canada.
In my 35 years as an entomologist in Canada I have seen, heard and collected many cicadas. The delightful Dog Day Cicada (Tibicen canicularis) sings from the White Birch trees near my house every summer. It is the species I have seen and heard most frequently. Cicadas are big (some more than 30 mm long, all at least 20 mm long), loud (at least to those who have not lost their high end hearing) and widely distributed across southern Canada. Sound production is fascinating. Males have tymbals under their wings. Tymbals have taut membranes across an echo chamber. The membranes vibrate to produce the high pitched, incessant, droning calls on hot summer days.
Tibicen canicularis. Photo by Denis Doucet
However I suspect many people have never seen or knowingly heard cicadas. Why? Probably because most of their life is spent as larvae underground sucking liquids out of roots so they can grow, mature and emerge as adults. Males sing from tree tops, mate with females who then lay eggs on twigs, when the eggs hatch the larvae fall to the ground and burrow to feed on roots. The larvae burrow down among the roots, not to be seem until they emerge as adults.
How can we reconcile these disparate pieces of information: i) cicadas are common and widespread where Canadians live, ii) most people have never seen them and iii) WARNING mass invasion of cicadas this summer!
We cannot because there will not be a mass emergence in Nova Scotia or indeed in eastern Canada. There will be about the same number of adult cicadas in eastern Canada as in any other year. No one will be able to detect a difference in the number of cicadas in 2013 compared to previous years. Perhaps there will be more attention on cicadas — that is a good thing.
How can I say this and go against all the headlines? The first step is to consider what species of cicadas occur in eastern Canada and compare that to which species of cicadas have mass emergences. In Nova Scotia there are three species of cicadas. All three are ‘annual’ cicadas. That is adults emerge each year, mate, lay eggs, larvae develop and then the adults emerge the next year. There are not dramatic differences in the number of adults from year to year. Males sing form the treetops every year and most year most people are blissfully ignorant they are there.
However in the eastern USA there are several species of cicadas (Periodical Cicadas, Magicacada spp.) with a different life cycle. These cicadas also have males who sing, females who mate and then lay eggs on twigs and larvae who feed on roots. But the next step is different, they keep feeding and do not emerge as adults for 13 or 17 years. The adults that emerge are ‘teenagers’, not one year olds. Some periodical cicadas emerge every year, but some years, including 2013 in the eastern USA, there are enormous cohorts of adults that emerge. The timing, evolution and distribution of these periodical cicadas are fascinating (see Magicicada Mapping Project Homepage http://www.magicicada.org/map_project/maps.php, A National Geographic Project).
Legitimately, these intriguing insects are attracting lots of attention. Because many people have a fear (unrealistic in my opinion) of such a large insects there has been undue media attention to the mass emergence, the sensationalist headlines and unfounded stress in some people.
In Nova Scotia there are no reasonable ground to be concerned about a mass emergence of cicadas this summer. The three species of cicadas in Nova Scotia all have an annual life cycle. Numbers of adults that emerge each year are similar. We will not be able to see any difference in populations of adults this year compared to other years.
Despite being able to ally the concerns of Nova Scotians, I feel I am missing a spectacular natural phenomenon. Perhaps this is a reason to relocate from my Cape Breton home? A good one, but there are lots of good entomological reasons to stay.
For more information on cicadas, check out www.bugguide.org (search for cicada) and a paper published earlier in 2013: Biogeography of the Cicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) of North America, North of Mexico by Allen F. Sanborn and Polly K. Phillips in Diversity 5: 166-239; doi:10.3390/d5020166.
Last week, Chris Buddle and Paul Manning posted the first of a two-part series on outreach activities in elementary schools. That post focused on the ‘why’ – this one (also written by Chris and Paul) is about the ‘how’.
How to talk to kids about bugs:
First thing about talking to elementary school kids is stay calm and don’t worry! If you have any University-level training in Entomology, you are qualified – Now, this doesn’t mean you have to be able to speak about all aspects of entomology: play to your strengths! If you are a taxonomists working on Syrphidae flies, bring in your flies and talk about them these magnificent animals. If your experience is broader and less specialized, browse some notes, look on-line, or peek at a textbook: do a short overview of the main Orders of insects and their characteristics. Although most kids get some entomology in elementary schools, it’s not usually very much (although ALL kids do seem to learn about monarch butterflies!).
One great way to speak to kids about bugs is to make the session thematic. In addition to bringing in a drawer or two of insects, link the specimens to biology. For example, one of us (Paul) has recently used ‘metamorphosis’ as a focal point for discussion. The transition from larvae to adult is a biological wonder, and acts as an excellent focal point for discussion. It brings together different facets of biology, from hormones, to physiological development, behavioural adaptations, through to discussion about life history strategies. Paul brought galls into the classroom, and demonstrated that there were larvae living inside. The students screamed with excitement when they saw the larvae living within the gall. One student described it as a ‘cute white blob‘. Several students asked if they could bring the larvae home (wouldn’t Mom and Dad just LOVE that!).
Kids like bugs. And they like to draw them.
Don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know”. In fact, kids find it refreshing to hear that an ‘expert’ doesn’t know all the answers. Turn it around to illustrate that the world of entomology is so vast that there are a lot of unknowns out there, and many questions still to be answered.
Have patience. With younger grades, asking kids questions, or having them answer questions, can quickly turn into ‘stories’ from young, enthusiastic students. For example:
Q: Does anyone know what kind of insect a ladybug is?
[Hand shoots into the air…]
A (from a 6 year old): Um, yes, I know a lot about those things. Once, when I was 4, I remember that I saw a beautiful bug flying by my garden – it was really big and black and I think it was a ladybug and my granddad told me about how ones like that eat trees and kill the trees and that makes me sad because we have a big tree in our front yard that I really like but sometimes my little bratty brother hides behind it and scares me when I am walking by. But I really like all bugs especially ladybug ones that are red but they smell funny sometimes and my mom said they can bite – will they bite me if I play with them? why do they smell funny? why are there so many spots on them? do their spots get bigger when they grow….
Give kids a chance to tell you these stories, but know that it will take patience…. but heck, if bugs get them talking and excited, that can’t be a bad thing!
(as an aside, most elementary school teachers will typically coach students so that they will ask/answer question instead of tell stories)
Bring a few props: If you can do an event outdoors, try to bring a few sweep nets and vials. We will often bring extra vials from the lab and give students the vials to keep (heck, plastic vials cost very little!). For MONTHS afterwards, parents will often tell us about how their child packed that vial full of insects and carried it around obsessively for weeks. That’s a great way to inspire entomology.
Beetle galleries are easily found in wood, and can be a great prop to bring to an entomology session with school kids.
If you are doing an indoor talk, make sure to have a lot of photographs of interesting insects, and whenever possible, discuss/show or use examples from your local fauna – this will allow kids to connect to things they have seen on the playground or in their own yards – this connection between the content you are discussing and the insects they are seeing on their own, is very powerful. With a smaller group, you can certainly bring in a few drawers of insects – if you don’t have any, this becomes a great excuse to make a little synoptic collection of your own to use for educational purposes. Or, ask your local entomology museum, or local naturalist club, about borrowing some specimens.
Whenever possible, bring a few ‘real’ field guides. One of us (CB) ran a biodiversity challenge at an elementary school and managed to convince the school to buy a couple of sets of field guides. The kids LOVE the look and feel of real field guides and will thumb through them with delight. Part of our own passion about natural history can be traced back to field guides in our houses when we were young.
Don’t dumb down the material: Too often we think kids need to be talked down to, but nothing is further from the truth. As mentioned above, kids are sponges for information and in our experience they want to hear the details. You will want to avoid jargon, but other than that, provide the details whenever you can. Again, doing a ‘thematic’ talk with school kids becomes quite important because you just won’t have time to cover anything in-depth if you try to cover too much.
Finally, and most importantly, be passionate and enthusiastic. Kids will feel your positive energy and love of entomology; they will feed off of this, take it home with them; they will start asking more questions, start to dream, and fall further in love with the world around them. Spending a bit of time in a classroom is perhaps one of the most important kinds of outreach activities to do.
From filing cabinets to fieldwork: an investigation into Aphid population variability
By Chris Buddle, Editor of the Canadian Entomologist
———————–
I am pleased to present the “Editor’s Pick” manuscript for the current issue of The Canadian Entomologist. This pick was a paper by Bob Lamb, Patricia MacKay and Andrei Alyokhin, titled “Seasonal dynamics of three coexisting aphid species: implications for estimating population variability”
I had always admired the ongoing work on aphids, spearheaded by Bob and Pat. Their work is always relevant, meticulous, framed in an important and broader ecological context, and they have a ‘model system’ to work with. This is the kind of researcher many more junior entomologists look up to. The current paper is no exception. In this work, Bob and Pat joined up with Andrei Alyokhin and present a careful study of population variability and effectively use this metric to better understand population dynamics over time. For me, I see much value in this approach, and can see how this kind of work could effectively be used in teaching students about how to best describe, understand, and quantify population dynamics. I’m also inspired to see long-term data with arthropods. These kinds of data are so useful, but relatively rare. It’s great to see Bob, Pat and Andrei publish thoughtful and important work using such data. I may also look around some old filing cabinets at my University…
Bob was kind enough to answer a few questions about this work, with input from his co-authors.
What inspired this work?
When Pat MacKay and I were anticipating eventual retirement from paying jobs as entomologists, we decided to begin a study of an aphid population that could be pursued as long as we could walk trails and count aphids. Our goal was to figure out why aphid populations seem to be so unstable. Eventually we wrote up our findings on the stability of one native species over the first 10 years of a study we hope will go on for at least another 10 years. A few years ago we realized we needed comparative data, but were too old to start on a 20-year study of another aphid species. The solution was to write to colleagues who also had long-term data sets, to see if they were interested in looking at their data from this perspective. So far the colleagues we have contacted have been enthusiastic collaborators. The first was Andrei Alyokhin our coauthor on the current paper. He gave us access to 60 years of data on three aphid species. The first paper on the stability of these aphids was published in the Canadian Entomologist two years ago. The current paper extends that earlier work, looking now at how aphid seasonal biology affects our estimates of stability.
Bob Lamb, sporting “aphid hunting gear”
What do you hope will be the lasting impact of this paper?
We hope that this paper will help convince other researchers that Joel Heath’s metric, PV, which we use to quantify population variability, is a robust way to quantify one aspect of the stability of populations. If more researchers adopt this metric, ecologists will have a much greater opportunity to apply a comparative approach and identify factors that contribute to stability or instability of populations.
Where will your next line of research on this topic take you?
Pat MacKay and I continue to extend our time series on the abundance of a native aphid, and are now focusing more on the ecological processes that cause our five populations to rise and fall. We also hope to expand our studies of stability to still more aphid species, but also species with very different life histories. At the moment I am working with a colleague, Terry Galloway, University of Manitoba, on several time-series of ectoparasite abundance on birds.
Do you have any interesting anecdotes about this research?
One of the most interesting aspects of the work on aphids from potatoes is the source of the data – 60 years or more of weekly aphid counts. The data for the early years were discovered by Andrei Alyokhin in an abandoned filing cabinet stored in a barn at the University of Maine. Andrei was a new faculty member at the time exploring his research facilities. His predecessors had maintained meticulous records of aphid densities in potato plots since soon after World War II. Andrei was quick to recognize the value of this data, and more importantly recognized the need to go on collecting the data in the same way. The result is an amazing data set, one of the longest continuous records at one location of the dynamics of multi-voltine species.
Lesson 1: newly-hired entomologists should begin their careers by searching old filing cabinets.
Lesson 2: meticulous long-term records can be invaluable, sometime in ways that you might not anticipate.
Andrei discovering data in old filing cabinets
Lamb R.J., MacKay P.A. & Alyokhin A. (2013). Seasonal dynamics of three coexisting aphid species: implications for estimating population variability, The Canadian Entomologist, 145 (03) 283-291. DOI: 10.4039/tce.2013.1
Bulletin Bonanza!
The latest Bulletin of the Entomological Society of Canada was recently released, and contains wide array of interesting entomological articles including:
You can find the ESC June Bulletin on the ESC Website.
The Entomological Society of Ontario has published their spring newsletter, with information on a new ESO Sesquicentennial Graduate Student Award, the ESO Bug Eye Photo Contest, the upcoming ESC-ESO JAM to be held in Guelph this fall, and plenty of other interesting information. You can read the ESO Spring 2013 Newsletter here.
The Entomological Society of Saskatchewan also has their spring newsletter available. With articles on entomology outreach close to home, a fascinating report from Owen Olfert about his recent trip to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (sometimes referred to as North Korea) to help with insect monitoring projects in agricultural environments, and early details about the 2014 ESC-ESS JAM being held in Saskatoon. Go West (or East for those of you in Alberta & British Columbia) and learn all about the great entomology work being done in Saskatchewan.
The Royal Canadian Mint’s “Animal Architects” Coin Series Celebrates Insects and the ESC!
By Rebecca Hallett, ESC First Vice-President
—————————
A year ago, an exciting new collaboration was initiated between the ESC and the Royal Canadian Mint. This collaboration grew from a letter sent by then President, Michel Cusson, and myself as chair of the Scientific Policy and Education committee, to the Mint commending them for the inclusion of insects on Canadian coins and offering the services of the ESC as a resource for the development of future insect coins. The response from the Mint was very warm and they immediately invited the ESC to be involved in the Animal Architects coin series.
The Animal Architects coin series celebrates the “exceptional architects of Canada’s animal world and their unique constructions”. I was thrilled to see that the first coin in this new series has recently been released, depicting an iconic insect architect, the honeybee, with its hive.
View the sale sheet here for the 2012 $3 FINE SILVER COIN – ANIMAL ARCHITECTS: BEE & HIVE
The Mint also decided to recognize the involvement of the ESC in this series and, in 2013, to commemorate the Sesquicentennial of the ESC on the certificates of authenticity that accompany the coins.
The Bee & Hive coin has proven to be extremely popular and is selling rapidly. The depiction of insects on coins helps to increase appreciation for nature in general, and insects in particular, among the Canadian and coin-collecting public. I hope you will consider supporting this endeavour by treating yourself or a loved one to one or all of the coins in this series.
Coins can be ordered from the Royal Mint website:
http://www.mint.ca/store/coin/14-oz-fine-silver-coin-animal-architects-bee–hive-2013-prod1670011
Or obtained through one of the Mint’s dealers:
http://www.mint.ca/store/mint/customer-service/dealer-locator-1400026
I’ve got my Bee & Hive coin reserved and am rushing off to Toronto tomorrow to collect it!
Keep your eyes open in the fall for the next Animal Architects coin to emerge…
Cicada invasion in eastern Canada?
By David McCorquodale, Dean of Science and Technology, Cape Breton University
There is a perception that Nova Scotia and Cape Breton (where I live) may be subject to an invasion of cicadas. The perception seems to stem from the mass emergence of cicadas in the northeastern USA this spring and summer. What an opportunity to build suspense and stress! Consider this headline from Design and Trend on 09 May 2013: CICADAPOCALYPSE: Mass Exodus from the Ground. A Google search revealed dozens of similar, but admittedly not as sensationalist, headlines from news outlets in the northeastern US and a few in Canada.
In my 35 years as an entomologist in Canada I have seen, heard and collected many cicadas. The delightful Dog Day Cicada (Tibicen canicularis) sings from the White Birch trees near my house every summer. It is the species I have seen and heard most frequently. Cicadas are big (some more than 30 mm long, all at least 20 mm long), loud (at least to those who have not lost their high end hearing) and widely distributed across southern Canada. Sound production is fascinating. Males have tymbals under their wings. Tymbals have taut membranes across an echo chamber. The membranes vibrate to produce the high pitched, incessant, droning calls on hot summer days.
Tibicen canicularis. Photo by Denis Doucet
However I suspect many people have never seen or knowingly heard cicadas. Why? Probably because most of their life is spent as larvae underground sucking liquids out of roots so they can grow, mature and emerge as adults. Males sing from tree tops, mate with females who then lay eggs on twigs, when the eggs hatch the larvae fall to the ground and burrow to feed on roots. The larvae burrow down among the roots, not to be seem until they emerge as adults.
How can we reconcile these disparate pieces of information: i) cicadas are common and widespread where Canadians live, ii) most people have never seen them and iii) WARNING mass invasion of cicadas this summer!
We cannot because there will not be a mass emergence in Nova Scotia or indeed in eastern Canada. There will be about the same number of adult cicadas in eastern Canada as in any other year. No one will be able to detect a difference in the number of cicadas in 2013 compared to previous years. Perhaps there will be more attention on cicadas — that is a good thing.
How can I say this and go against all the headlines? The first step is to consider what species of cicadas occur in eastern Canada and compare that to which species of cicadas have mass emergences. In Nova Scotia there are three species of cicadas. All three are ‘annual’ cicadas. That is adults emerge each year, mate, lay eggs, larvae develop and then the adults emerge the next year. There are not dramatic differences in the number of adults from year to year. Males sing form the treetops every year and most year most people are blissfully ignorant they are there.
However in the eastern USA there are several species of cicadas (Periodical Cicadas, Magicacada spp.) with a different life cycle. These cicadas also have males who sing, females who mate and then lay eggs on twigs and larvae who feed on roots. But the next step is different, they keep feeding and do not emerge as adults for 13 or 17 years. The adults that emerge are ‘teenagers’, not one year olds. Some periodical cicadas emerge every year, but some years, including 2013 in the eastern USA, there are enormous cohorts of adults that emerge. The timing, evolution and distribution of these periodical cicadas are fascinating (see Magicicada Mapping Project Homepage http://www.magicicada.org/map_project/maps.php, A National Geographic Project).
Legitimately, these intriguing insects are attracting lots of attention. Because many people have a fear (unrealistic in my opinion) of such a large insects there has been undue media attention to the mass emergence, the sensationalist headlines and unfounded stress in some people.
In Nova Scotia there are no reasonable ground to be concerned about a mass emergence of cicadas this summer. The three species of cicadas in Nova Scotia all have an annual life cycle. Numbers of adults that emerge each year are similar. We will not be able to see any difference in populations of adults this year compared to other years.
Despite being able to ally the concerns of Nova Scotians, I feel I am missing a spectacular natural phenomenon. Perhaps this is a reason to relocate from my Cape Breton home? A good one, but there are lots of good entomological reasons to stay.
For more information on cicadas, check out www.bugguide.org (search for cicada) and a paper published earlier in 2013: Biogeography of the Cicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) of North America, North of Mexico by Allen F. Sanborn and Polly K. Phillips in Diversity 5: 166-239; doi:10.3390/d5020166.
Kids like bugs: entomology outreach in elementary schools (Part 2)
Last week, Chris Buddle and Paul Manning posted the first of a two-part series on outreach activities in elementary schools. That post focused on the ‘why’ – this one (also written by Chris and Paul) is about the ‘how’.
How to talk to kids about bugs:
First thing about talking to elementary school kids is stay calm and don’t worry! If you have any University-level training in Entomology, you are qualified – Now, this doesn’t mean you have to be able to speak about all aspects of entomology: play to your strengths! If you are a taxonomists working on Syrphidae flies, bring in your flies and talk about them these magnificent animals. If your experience is broader and less specialized, browse some notes, look on-line, or peek at a textbook: do a short overview of the main Orders of insects and their characteristics. Although most kids get some entomology in elementary schools, it’s not usually very much (although ALL kids do seem to learn about monarch butterflies!).
One great way to speak to kids about bugs is to make the session thematic. In addition to bringing in a drawer or two of insects, link the specimens to biology. For example, one of us (Paul) has recently used ‘metamorphosis’ as a focal point for discussion. The transition from larvae to adult is a biological wonder, and acts as an excellent focal point for discussion. It brings together different facets of biology, from hormones, to physiological development, behavioural adaptations, through to discussion about life history strategies. Paul brought galls into the classroom, and demonstrated that there were larvae living inside. The students screamed with excitement when they saw the larvae living within the gall. One student described it as a ‘cute white blob‘. Several students asked if they could bring the larvae home (wouldn’t Mom and Dad just LOVE that!).
Kids like bugs. And they like to draw them.
Don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know”. In fact, kids find it refreshing to hear that an ‘expert’ doesn’t know all the answers. Turn it around to illustrate that the world of entomology is so vast that there are a lot of unknowns out there, and many questions still to be answered.
Have patience. With younger grades, asking kids questions, or having them answer questions, can quickly turn into ‘stories’ from young, enthusiastic students. For example:
Q: Does anyone know what kind of insect a ladybug is?
[Hand shoots into the air…]
A (from a 6 year old): Um, yes, I know a lot about those things. Once, when I was 4, I remember that I saw a beautiful bug flying by my garden – it was really big and black and I think it was a ladybug and my granddad told me about how ones like that eat trees and kill the trees and that makes me sad because we have a big tree in our front yard that I really like but sometimes my little bratty brother hides behind it and scares me when I am walking by. But I really like all bugs especially ladybug ones that are red but they smell funny sometimes and my mom said they can bite – will they bite me if I play with them? why do they smell funny? why are there so many spots on them? do their spots get bigger when they grow….
Give kids a chance to tell you these stories, but know that it will take patience…. but heck, if bugs get them talking and excited, that can’t be a bad thing!
(as an aside, most elementary school teachers will typically coach students so that they will ask/answer question instead of tell stories)
Bring a few props: If you can do an event outdoors, try to bring a few sweep nets and vials. We will often bring extra vials from the lab and give students the vials to keep (heck, plastic vials cost very little!). For MONTHS afterwards, parents will often tell us about how their child packed that vial full of insects and carried it around obsessively for weeks. That’s a great way to inspire entomology.
Beetle galleries are easily found in wood, and can be a great prop to bring to an entomology session with school kids.
If you are doing an indoor talk, make sure to have a lot of photographs of interesting insects, and whenever possible, discuss/show or use examples from your local fauna – this will allow kids to connect to things they have seen on the playground or in their own yards – this connection between the content you are discussing and the insects they are seeing on their own, is very powerful. With a smaller group, you can certainly bring in a few drawers of insects – if you don’t have any, this becomes a great excuse to make a little synoptic collection of your own to use for educational purposes. Or, ask your local entomology museum, or local naturalist club, about borrowing some specimens.
Whenever possible, bring a few ‘real’ field guides. One of us (CB) ran a biodiversity challenge at an elementary school and managed to convince the school to buy a couple of sets of field guides. The kids LOVE the look and feel of real field guides and will thumb through them with delight. Part of our own passion about natural history can be traced back to field guides in our houses when we were young.
A field guide to insects – suitable for all ages!
Don’t dumb down the material: Too often we think kids need to be talked down to, but nothing is further from the truth. As mentioned above, kids are sponges for information and in our experience they want to hear the details. You will want to avoid jargon, but other than that, provide the details whenever you can. Again, doing a ‘thematic’ talk with school kids becomes quite important because you just won’t have time to cover anything in-depth if you try to cover too much.
Finally, and most importantly, be passionate and enthusiastic. Kids will feel your positive energy and love of entomology; they will feed off of this, take it home with them; they will start asking more questions, start to dream, and fall further in love with the world around them. Spending a bit of time in a classroom is perhaps one of the most important kinds of outreach activities to do.
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Cross-posted from: http://arthropodecology.com/2013/04/26/kids-like-bugs-entomology-outreach-in-elementary-schools-part-2/