#ceraphronoidea

It's been a while, but I'm back with another cartoon! This male Dendrocerus (Megaspilidae) is unaware of two secret admirers, a female Lagynodes (Megaspilidae), and a female Ceraphron (Ceraphronidae). I was inspired to draw this cartoon after seeing a comic yesterday that consisted of two beetles, one with antennae, and one without. The dialogue was in Spanish, but it translated to:

Beetle 1: "What happened to your antennae?"

I don’t even have any pictures from Monday because I was so exhausted from my whirlwind weekend in NY. 

However, Tuesday was full of fieldwork (!!!) so I have plenty of pictures from that!

pictured here is a cute lil leaf-footed bug. The genus is Acanthocephala, but I’m not sure of the species. There are 5 species in the US and they’re pretty abundant in the forests. These are large plant-feeding bugs with leaflike flanges on the hind legs. The males typically have thickened, spiked “thighs” for combat females. They also have a sharp odor to emit when molested. 

 We also saw numerous lady-bird beetles (more commonly known as ladybugs) munching on some aphids

next is a long horned grasshopper nymph enjoying the sunrise along with us

Of course, I love doing field work and find myself happiest out in nature, but I had to return to work after the traps were collected! 

Gates and I headed back to the museum where I continued to sort specimen, some of which I’ve featured here:

ceraphronoidea; dendrocerus

Chalcidoidea, leucospidae. Their wings characteristically fold longitudinally and their ovipositor is located above the dorsum. 

That wasn’t the only cool find of the day, though. I thought I had found a stephanoid (very rare), but turns out none of us are really sure what I found! 

This guy is some kind of rare diapriid that Dr. Gates and Buffington were both stumped by. 

Dr. Buffington explained some of the research he is interested in doing on these species with “strange head lumps.” The “thorns” you see on the head here are actually a result of the muscles that these little guys must use to move their massive mandibles. The funny part is, they don’t use these mandibles on a regular basis. They tend to only be used when emerging from the host, but not much after. So, they’re just flying around with these massive mandibles for seemingly no reason. Pretty interesting that evolution has cost-evaluated these giant escape-tools as worth it. 

Cool part was, I found 5 of these rare lil dudes! 

Anyway, Tuesday evening was full of poetry reading and more self exploration. Here is a poem I found especially moving, and one that I feel really captures my current state of mind. 

I think that’s all I have to say on that note, for now. I’ve been journaling a lot, separately, about my personal life here. This trip has facilitated so much personal growth for me, and it’s a little scary to unleash that on the internet, but once I feel that I’ve got the words coherently typed out, I promise to share. 

Anyway, Wednesday was also a great day, not as full of rare specimen, but close! I found this awesome member of the family Brachonidae (which I thought was a at first Stephanidae):

Other than that, Wednesday was pretty normal. I got to hang out with some of my intern buddies and have some fun around the museum!

With my internship coming to a close, I’m realizing how much this time here has meant to me and how much I will cherish this experience for the rest of my life. It is so nice to be around people so passionate and encouraging. Not that I don’t experience those same sentiments in Arkansas, but it’s a little easier facilitated in the number one research institute in the world.