Lab 7: Insect Zoo

Yes, I realize that I'm behind on getting my post done this week. Unfortunately, I got sick on Tuesday and today was the first day that I felt well enough to venture out of my apartment for anything other than the doctor's office.

PHOTO: "Rain forest tree" in front of the zoo.

Last week we walked over to the KSU Insect Zoo and were given a tour by the zoo's director, Kiffini Holt. She talked about the zoo's mission and how the zoo works to fulfill that mission.

PHOTO: Honey Bee exhibit

http://www.entomology.k-state.edu/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=442

We went to the zoo to get some "inspiration" for a poster that we are creating for class. These posters will be displayed the first week of December and will be voted on by tour groups and faculty members. Of course, if you want to have a tour with me you can vote on your "favorite" poster as well (HINT, HINT)!

PHOTO: Giant Prickly Stick (one of my favorite exhibits)

I chose Dragonflies since they are one of my favorite insects, I'm already working on a Dragonfly project, and I would like to do a Ph.D. on dragonflies.

The tour didn't really help me with deciding how to present the information for my poster. Kiffinie did tell us that usually they have kindergartners and their chaperons for tours. So, this confirmed my suspicion that lots of photos with color contrast and little words will capture the kids attention. Fortunately, dragonflies are highly photogenic and come in a wide variety of colors. Additionally, they are predators so they also have a "cool" factor. The complexity of my project comes with balance- dragonflies have a "complex" life cycle so limiting the text to explain how their life cycle works may be a challenge but I think I found a photo to help with this.

PHOTO: Jungle Nymphs (how many insects do you see in this picture?)

Part of our assignment is to embed two of our "wow" pictures. So here are the photos that I consider the "wow factor."

Mating Dragonflies

Dragonfly nymph eating a fish

I just noticed how grainy these photos look so I may need to find different photos or see if I can fix the photos with photoshop or something.

I enjoyed going to the insect zoo; I have been there several times but this was the first time I was there since I moved back to Kansas. Of course, I enjoyed looking at the tarantula's and Kiffini has created some "ecosystem" exhibits that are quite good. I suggest that people go over to the zoo to see the insects and look for the "changing" exhibits.

This week we had our FINAL insect byte:

http://ent612.wetpaint.com/page/cigarette+beetle stored product insect