#brachonidae

Flea Markets,  Mondays, and Marshes

(days 7, 8 and 9)

Hello, friends!

Once again, I am a day behind on the blogging. Let’s do the logical thing and start with Sunday:

Sunday: Flea Markets, Sun Flowers, and The Smell of Aged Pages

Sunday was a glorious day from the beginning. Gabriella and I decided to wake up relatively early and hit the “Flea Market Scene” here in DC, which turned out to be one of the best ideas we’ve had. We rode the metro over to Eastern Market and spent entirely too much money on old atlas pages, fancy coffees, hand-made earrings, and, of course, sunflowers. How could we resist? We made so many new friends (vendors and fellow customers alike), and when we decided we simply couldn’t spend any more money, headed to a book store. 

Capitol Hill Books was an incredible place from start to finish. Below you’ll see just a snippet of the commentary the owner has posted all over the store. I spent some time looking around the ground floor, only to find a small staircase leading to a basement full of books on science, animals, mathematics, Latin America, and Disney princesses. I was home. 

I walked out of Capitol Hill Books with three new purchases and an incredibly happy heart. Gabriela and I sat together at a coffee shop enjoying the weather and, you guessed it, more coffee. I was admiring a baby at the table next to us, who eventually ended up walking over to me and feeling my face (it’s really soft apparently?) and hugging me very tight. Of course I was into this, but what made it even better is the fact that the family was from Peru! I was able to speak Spanish, once again, and the mother remarked how impressed she was with my abilities. I don’t think she would have been so welcoming to a stranger hugging her infant had we not shared the medium of at least language. 

We arrived home and came to the mutual agreement to hit the hay early, which really turned into me reading my new (to me) books until about 3 am.

Monday: Mornings Are Hard, Afternoons Are Harder?

So, those of you keeping up with this blog know that I’ve already had some good days and some bad. However, I love my job and the people I get to work with, so I power through! 

I expected Monday to fly bye. I was well rested, pumped full of coffee and a good breakfast, dressed professionally and practically, and excited to start working on my own on the 7th floor of the research center (on the Malagasy Project I’m here for). I received an email on Friday saying I would be able to pick up my new and ~activated~ ID from the Security office (about a 15 minute walk away from where I work, so overall about an hour walk away). I decided to walk because I felt like it was a nice morning and I was also looking to save some money by avoiding the Metro.

The only problem is that while the weather (by that I mean humidity) was fine at 7:30 am, it was very not fine (IT WAS SO HUMID) by 8:00 am and by the time I arrived in the Security Office I was drenched in sweat and clearly disheveled. 

After locating some forms lost in countless emails, I was able to get my badge! And by the time I got it, most of the sweat had dried! 

I made the trek back to work (SO SWEATY) and got started prepping some specimen Dr. Gates collected. A little side part of my time here is dedicated to learning trapping/gathering/rearing/researching techniques I can bring back to Hendrix to not only further my studies, but expose my peers to the awesome opportunities available for Hendrix students (like, oh, I don’t know, the Smithsonian. Not a big deal...!)  

But you’ll never guess who just so happens to have pretty slippery hands and just so happened to be working with specimen preserved in glass?

...

That’s all I have to say about that one. Here’s what the setup looked like:

After completing this I was able to move upstairs and begin the identifying process of my portion of The Malagasy Project, and let me tell you, am I having a ball. Below I’ve included a few pictures of the super cool specimen I’ve been able to look at:

CUTE Ichneumonidae

aaggghhhh it’s so beautiful! (Chrysidoidea)

Cute little bee (apoidea)

Look at the mandibles on this Brachonidae!

Ichneumonidae loooove

“Love comes in all shapes, sizes, colors, genders, species”

Look at the ovipositor on this Chalcidoidea!

Monday ended much better than it began, and while the struggles are tough, I’m glad I get to have them in such a thriving place with incredible people. 

Tuesday:  Marsh Madness

(^I’m really proud of that title)

Today was, by far, the best day I have had while here in DC. This morning, I met with Dr. Gates at 7 am for a morning full of field work! I loved every moment of being outdoors again and even every moment of the humid air. It made me miss Arkansas, specifically the woods behind my house. Dr. Gates taught me how to collect and set up pan-traps, shown below. They’re fairly simple to setup and keep going as well as relatively cheap - this makes them ideal for a young entomologist that just so happens to also be in college (by that I mean I’m broke 100% of the time). 

(why are there earth worms in here, you might ask? We don’t know either. But they’re in a lot of the bowls, so if any one can say why, that’d be great!)

The morning was incredible and perfect in every way. These are the moments when I know this is what I want to do. I’ve not been this happy since arriving in DC, and I think it’s an important attribute to learn about myself: I need to be outside. My true happiness comes from that reconnection with the Earth that can only be found where man hasn’t left his mark. 

Dr. Gates and I had plenty of time to enjoy each other’s company as well as each other’s silence (I think this is also a remarkable trait to have - to be able to appreciate silence and not be uncomfortable with it; just enjoying the company of another human). I am happy to have a supervisor so willing to bond with me and expose me to all the facets of Entomology he can before my time here is up. 

In the time that we had to talk, he inspired me to follow both of my passions and try to plan my next odyssey trip - maybe some entomology research/studying of Spanish in Costa Rica next summer? More details to come later. 

Some of you may be asking yourselves, “Well, why are you guys collecting these guys, Allison? Are you just observing biodiversity?”

The answer is yes and no!

While pan-traps are great for observing biodiversity, we are actually using these to observe the populations of parasitoids of the notorious Emerald Ash Borer, a huge threat to Ash trees and biodiversity across America and Canada. By studying these parasitoids, we can get an idea of how many beetles are still affecting the ecosystem and (hopefully) figure out a way to save Ash trees before they’re gone forever. 

To learn more about the Emerald Ash Borer, check out this website: http://www.hungrypests.com/the-threat/emerald-ash-borer.php 

Really, it’s super cool.

Anyway, I arrived back at the museum in time for a tour of the Botany Anatomy and Histology lab, which was just incredible. It made me really appreciate the delicacy required of Botanist and especially miss my best bud back at Hendrix, Hanna Liebermann. Hanna hopes to study botany and is also very near and dear to my heart. (Side thought: It’s funny how connected botany and entomology are)

After the tour, I was able to sort through the remainder of my first bag of specimen from the Malagasy Collection and finish the next one. Each of these had at least 600 specimen, most of which were vespoidea. I’ve tried to include pictures of the ones I find most interesting:

“Hey, what’s up, hello” (vespoidea)

Chalcidoidea with some piercing eyes

DIVAS (Chrysidoidea)

So, it certainly looks like this Vespoid got caught in the act eating another little buggy, but it turns out those are actually his mouth parts! Similar to human’s lips/jaw, these help with ingestion (the mandibles are able to crush things up, but these are needed to actually consume the food!)

What ARE you...? (Ichneumonid with extended mouth-parts?)

I got a little carried away and ended up working until 7 pm. So, I accidentally worked a 12 hour work day. 

I find this, yet again, validating. The fact that I can do something for 12 hours and not get frustrated/tired of it/antsy says a lot about how much I love said something. 

Now, as I write this blog to those of you that will end up reading it, I just want to say thank you. Thanks for supporting me in following my dreams, even if that’s by only reading a silly blog full of wasps you may never really enjoy, but look at anyway. It means the world to me.