specimen collection and insect preparation

Module 02 Lecture.html

Lab Completion Activities and Resources for Exercise 2

Instructions:

This page is meant to GUIDE your work through the activities in the lab manual and IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR READING THE LAB MANUAL.  Often, student questions can be answered by reading the corresponding sections in the lab manual.

 

Part one: Guide to specimen collection and insect preparation (pages 30-31 in the lab manual)

Collecting an insect without this specialized equipment is still easy!  Here are some household items/techniques that you may use to collect flying or jumping insects:

• a pillow case
• a small aquarium net
• a plastic bag, a cup, or a jar with a lid to save your insect specimens.
• You can use a stick and a tray or sturdy piece of paper to ‘mimic’ the beating stick from the Prelab insect collection video to collect insects from tall shrubbery and trees.
• Remember to turn any logs away from you, in case it is a home to a creature you don’t want to disturb!
• Don’t be afraid to use your hands to dig in the dirt, but be careful of stinging insects! Especially AVOID these venomous insects:

 

• Look for animals with six legs (no spiders, ticks, millipedes, worms, etc.). Dragonflies, butterflies, caterpillars, ants, beetles, grasshoppers, crickets, flies, mosquitoes, grubs, fleas, stinkbugs, lacewings, lovebugs, etc. are all okay.

 

Collect 1-2 insects and make sure you take photos during your collection for inclusion in your postlab.

Once you’ve collected your insect, you can preserve it in rubbing alcohol (isopropyl alcohol) and store it in the freezer. Even if you don’t have rubbing alcohol, place your insect in your freezer for the next module.

Be sure to complete #5 on page 31. Skip #6-9 on page 31.

Part two: Introduction to the Wolbachia project (pages 32-33 in the lab manual)

Be sure to fill in the flowchart on page 32 with the exercise titles, numbers, and dates. You can use the flowchart on page 261 of your lab manual and the dates in our course syllabus schedule to help guide you.

Complete the “How to Distinguish Between an Observation, Hypothesis, or Prediction” untimed Folio ‘quiz’ to help you complete the questions on page 33.

Discussion Questions (pages 35-37 in the lab manual)

Answer the discussion questions in your lab manual on pages 35-37. You may use your completed discussion questions to help you on the Discussion Questions Quiz.

Interact with the short video that reviews these discussion questions.