Field Entomology

May Session 2010

Course number: EEB 4252
Dates: May 10- May 28
Day/time: MTWThF, 1pm-4pm
Place: Storrs campus, Torrey Life Sciences Room 313
Credits: 3 (open to majors and non-majors)
Instructor: Roberta Engel
E-mail: roberta.engel@uconn.edu

Have fun collecting insects and earn credits at the same time!
This course is an introduction to insect collecting, identification, and ecology. We will learn about the local insect fauna through numerous field trips and practice specimen inventory methods in the lab. Lectures will cover all major orders of insects and focus on various aspects of their ecology, behavior, and evolution. Throughout the term, students will collect specimens for the University research and teaching collections, and for their personal reference collection.

FIELD NOTEBOOK

Field Notebook, each entry should include the following:
Date: day-month-year, example: 10 V 2010
Time of day: 24-hour clock, example: 1pm = 1300
Location: country/state/county/town
GPS lat/long decimal degrees (note source of lat/long, esp. if added later)
Elevation
Directions to locality so that another could return to the site
Weather (temp., precip., wind, cloud cover, etc.)
Site description, where found insect and habitat in the immediate area
Sketches: site, insect, maps
Observations, list what collected (name or describe and add name later), number of specimens, who was present

Online Resources for taking Field Notes
MVZ
http://mvz.berkeley.edu/Why_Collections.html
http://mvz.berkeley.edu/Locality_Documentation.html

Sheldon Greaves
http://www.sas.org/tcs/weeklyIssues/2004-04-16/features1/index.html