Abbott Ecology

  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 ...

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’m gonna grow mealworms for my ducks! My son with a big ol’ handful of larvae!  Here’s the top drawer. I have the larval stage in the top drawer with plenty of fruit for the little guys to munch Shout out to my lemon cucumber plants! They’re the MVPs here for producing enough water source for three drawers and 7 ducks!  I think that this pale guy either just became the last instar of the cycle or is about to pupate. I’m not entirely sure at this point. He stays in the baby bin until later notice.  Update 08/27/22: This is what they look like right after molting into their last instar. Ugh. What a cute one with his little grape. I have pupa in the bottom drawer. I’m not feeling quite as confident about that move, because I’d like to turn the second drawer’s bottom into a screen for eggs to drow down into. However, I have neither the time nor the screen materials to accomplish that, so for now they’re gonna have their own beauty sleep area. I put them all under the ...