Abbott Ecology

 Today for Dinosaur Academy Revan and I learned how to identify some important snakes and recorded a  presentation  about them.  Then I cleaned the pond filter, and inadvertently found a male rhino beetle in my raised bed! I grabbed him up to put into my terrarium with the females. It was quite difficult to hold the beetle with my bare hands. I didn't get a picture because I was gross.  I set up a new terrarium for the stick bug. It eats oak. 

We went to Gonzalez TX to camp over the weekend and I couldn't resist bringing this MASSIVE stick bug home!  It stuck its leg into my son's mouth. He was not impressed.

  I finished up my pinned bug display! This project was started in 2019 and I finally have the whole thing filled with appropriate labels. Note: She was, in fact, not done with rearranging the case. This male ox beetle was hatched in my terrarium, and I’m hoping that he completed his duties with the two females in the enclosure before moving onto the afterlife. I couldn’t get his wings open, James had to help me! I’m working on a riparium to propagate some of the tomato stalks that I’m cutting up for the hornworms, since they only eat the leaves and the nodes can root. Also this carrot decided that it wanted to live so I stuck it in the tank too. My son and I have started working on plant identification and he’s keeping a journal of grasses, flowers, trees, etc. Found this giant elephant ear tuber drowning and rescued it. <Photo lost to blogspot hosting failure. It was pretty pitiful, no leaves, just a tuber.> It is very happy in the pond Brazilian Jasmine planted near ...

 Some updates:  The ladybugs didn’t make it. I think the pill bugs in the enclosure killed most of their food sources and laying grounds.  Moss didn’t make it - twice.  Mantis escaped - twice Rhino beetles are still going strong Pond is coming along nicely. I'm working on determining where the best placement for plants would be based on the pond's soil, sunlight, and toxicity to animals. Some of the plants, such as the mandevilla can cause stomach distress to dogs, so I want it up on the support system for the next time we foster puppies. I attempted to keep lady bugs.  I attempted to keep moss.

 A massive bug update since January! Sometime after January : I bought some hornworms from PetSmart, and they had pupated. I set them out on the porch (with the enclosure zipper closed) for some warmth so they’d hatch. Someone stole the pupae and enclosure right off my front porch! I’m so mad! Apr 15th - one of my female ox beetles emerged and was drying her wings. I was fortunate enough to catch it! June 23rd - banana spider bananananannana spider! I took too many pictures of her and she got spooked and left. July 4th - I had my first taxidermy experience with a Texas Tan Tarantula. It was gross, but well worth the final result! Update June 2024: I had to clear up space on my phone, so I uploaded the taxidermy videos onto youtube. Rewatching them brings back horrible memories. I was NOT stoic! 😂 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 July 16 th - One of my gorgeous ox beetle boys modeling for me August 6th - found a mantis in the garden and brought it inside for observation Augu...

Oct 15th - I had released some lacewings and ladybugs this past spring, so it was nice to see one flying around while we were working outside. There’s quite a few, which make me hopeful for the coming year. If you look behind the fly you’ll see a very tiny toad. This isn’t one of mine, just a little guy from the pond.  The toads are getting bigger. They're so cute!   Nov 17th - I found this Hackberry butterfly on the ground at school. I picked it up walked to my class, and left it in a bush outside. I came back 2 hours later and it was still there, so I took it home. Nov 21st - I ordered moss from Amazon. It has not been great so far, after a particularly nasty run in with fungus gnats (my fault, not the seller’s fault) I’m hoping that the moss that is left will survive. Jan 6th - Clearly this is not an exclusive entomology journal anymore, and even if it was, I think shrimp count as bugs. The fish have been upgraded to a 30 gallon tank, leaving their previous tank available...

I have a few biology projects currently ongoing, some entomology-related, some plant, some amphibian. My specimen collection is growing Yellowstriped Armyworm June 17th - armyworm caterpillar found eating my taro. Captured and kept in a glass jar of substrate and fed taro + monstera leaves. (top two pictures) July 6th - armyworm grew to 4.5cm and turned green, then dug itself into the substrate to pupate (middle left picture) July 9th - I dug it up, incorrectly assuming that it would already be a pupa. Instead it was shriveled down to about 2cm and looking pretty gnarly. (middle photo) July 11th - It successfully pupated despite my intrusions and was transferred into the butterfly enclosure. (middle right photo) July 24th - We have a moth! It lets me hold it. It never once flew away from me. (lower two photos) July 29th - Wow, it already died. I was going to give it a different fruit every day of its celebate life but I guess grape, orange, and apple is the most that an armyworm m...

An update about my mealworm colony. I recently reorganized after various iterations. What I’ve decided for setup is to use blended oats as substrate, and carrots as a regular water source.  The main setup (photo 1) is still in a 3-drawer system 14”x12”x3” per drawer.  The top drawer is the youngest mealworms that are recently hatched and about 1 cm long.  The middle drawer has the older mealworms ranging from 1cm-3cm with some pupating occasionally.  The bottom drawer has Generation 2 adult darkling beetles (photo 4 and 5) which are typically about 1.5 cm long This is where they get busy and have eggs.  When the mealworms turn into pupa they are transferred into a different bucket (photo 2 and 3) where they can hatch into beetles. This will be my 3rd generation of beetles. Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly Oct 2021 - took a creepy looking caterpillar home and thought I accidentally killed it. Turns out it pupated.  March 17, 2022 - butterfly emerged. May 26,...