Embedded Files
Photo: Deerfield River and Mt. Greylock, the highest point in Massachusetts, as seen from the High Ledges, Shelburne, MA
I also enjoy spending leisure time outdoors hiking, collecting insects, and taking photos, and when I'm not outside, I brew beer, play beer league hockey as a goalie and defenseman, and and spend time with my retired racing greyhound.
I've started to learn about insects, beginning with the "charismatic megafauna" of the insect world: butterflies and moths. I'm focusing on butterflies and moths first, to learn about the field of entomology, but I will catch other things that grab my attention! Butterflies are fun to learn about and interact with, and I'm starting a collection of butterfly and moth specimens, along with some neat dragonflies, wasps, beetles, and more. Below are some photos of my collections and art pieces.
My first box, all specimens collected during the summer of 2017 in Morgantown, WV. An interesting note: look at the mourning cloak in the center (black butterfly with yellow along the edges of its wings). That one is a freshly-hatched butterfly, just out of its chrysalis. Mourning cloaks emerge in the spring, go dormant throughout the summer, and become active again in the fall to feed before winter. They then overwinter as adults (relatively uncommon for butterflies), and then become active one more time in the early spring to mate and lay eggs before dying. This makes them one of the longest-lived butterflies. The black butterfly to the left of the fresh mourning cloak is another mourning cloak that was at the end of its life cycle, caught in the early spring. You can see how hard it is on them to last so long!
Butterfly display cubes made by me and Sandy Simon. These were on display during the It's an Art and a Science exhibition at the Monongalia Arts Center during March, 2017.
Above: dragonfly from the WVU Agronomy Farm.
Right: banded caterpillar parasite wasp (family Ichneumonidae) from Urbana, IL
State butterfly box I made for a friend.
Minnesota: Monarch (Danaus plexippus)
Montana: Mourning cloak (Nymphalis antiopa)
Massachusetts: Eastern black swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes)
Google Sites
Report abuse