We are not doing to well and have not caught a lot of bugs 🙁
Archives de catégorie : Fall 2015
Neat: Peter
It was kinda neat being on TV. Our class was on CTV news Barrie. It’s also pretty cool how Stayner Collegiate is 1 of 300 schools in Canada who has done this project.
Rain Doesn’t Dampen Our Parade
We had the chance to attach a new ethanol bottle to the Malaise trap for a second week of insect collection. Hopefully we’ll do as well or better for variety and numbers of bugs, but cooler temperatures might affect what we catch. Weather conditions today were pretty much 100% cloud cover and light rain. Winds were calm, but both the caution tape and sign were down, suggesting high winds over the weekend. -Sam, Samara and Sawyer
Rooftop Trapping in San Diego!
In San Diego, Calif. we have placed the Malaise traps on the roof of three of our libraries: the Central Library, the Scripps Ranch branch and the La Jolla branch. The weather here has been hot and dry but we have been able to collect a good number of samples which we’ll be sending along soon. The picture here shows the trap on top of our main branch the nine-story Central Library.
School Malaise Trap Program Data Published in Open Access Journal, PLOS ONE
Hello #bioSMTP participants (past and present)!
Today, the School Malaise Trap Program Team has exciting news to share with you about your contributions to biodiversity research and the international scientific community. Quite recently, a research article titled « Exploring Genetic Divergence in a Species-Rich Insect Genus Using 2790 DNA Barcodes » was published in PLOS ONE. The researchers utilized DNA barcode data collected by several School Malaise Trap Program participants to support their research. The Director of Education and Outreach at the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario, Dr. Dirk Steinke, explains the significance of your contributions in a recent blog post entry on his site (http://dna-barcoding.blogspot.ca/) and has allowed us to re-post it below for your convenience:
Participants of the School Malaise Trap program told us repeatedly that perhaps the most important aspect of the project, the one that students regard as particularly exciting, is the fact that they take part in the creation of a valuable public and scientific resource. They know their work will have a lasting impact. In case there are people that had any doubts that school data would actually be used in science let me point you to a new paper published just yesterday. Research colleagues in Norway analysed data of the chironomid genus Tanytarsus:
We explore the quality of DNA barcodes to delimit species in the diverse chironomid genus Tanytarsus (Diptera: Chironomidae) by using different analytical tools. The genus Tanytarsus is the most species-rich taxon of tribe Tanytarsini (Diptera: Chironomidae) with more than 400 species worldwide, some of which can be notoriously difficult to identify to species-level using morphology. Our dataset, based on sequences generated from own material and publicly available data in BOLD, consist of 2790 DNA barcodes with a fragment length of at least 500 base pairs. A neighbor joining tree of this dataset comprises 131 well separated clusters representing 121 morphological species of Tanytarsus: 77 named, 16 unnamed and 28 unidentified theoretical species.
Chironomids are notoriously common in Malaise trap collections. It comes to no surprise that a global search for data records will reveal some school samples. However, to my knowledge this is the first time such a result makes it into a research paper. In total the study includes 47 samples from Canadian schools. And here we go – congratulations to the following schools. Your data have just made it into PLoS ONE.
- Belfountain Public School: Belfountain, ON
- Centennial C.V.I.: Guelph, ON
- John F. Ross C.V.I.: Guelph, ON
- Hagersville Elementary School: Hagersville, ON
- Listowel Central Public School: Listowel, ON
- Craig Kielburger Secondary School: Milton, ON
- Woodcrest Public School: Oshawa, ON
- Owen Sound C.V.I.: Owen Sound, ON
- Mornington Central School: Perth East, ON
- Little Falls Public School: St. Marys, ON
- St. Marys District C.V.I.: St. Marys, ON
- Sacred Heart School: Teeswater, ON
- Walpole Island Elementary School: Wallaceburg, ON
- Donald A. Wilson Secondary School: Whitby, ON
Moving on to Week 2…
Last week we caught what we believe to be perhaps around 100 insects (some are very tiny!). The weather today is rainy, and the rest of the week looks to have tumultuous weather, but we are hoping to see more bugs out there! The new jar was set up this morning around 8:30am.
Also, just for fun, we saw this super huge Crane Fly last week on our main building!
Day 5 of Marchmont Malaise Trap Research
Our ‘Bug Researchers’ have been hard at work! Paving a way for bugs to get trapped is a tough job but someone’s got to do it! Our team of insect researchers were busy making signs, monitoring and guarding our trap. Things have been cooling off and we don’t seem to be getting as many samples as we had expected. Possibly 30-40 specimens. We are looking forward to next weeks collections!
Week 1 Catch Volume 1.5
With a bug count of well over 100 the kids continue to have fun. Cyril Varney PS
Looking forward to week 2!
Friday 25 Sept in North Vancouver, BC
Today was another cool-ish, showery day (16 C was the high), but even with some of the blustery winds we’ve had, the Malaise Trap and its guy ropes are doing just fine. In fact, it looks as good as it did when we first set the tent-like structure up a week ago. This week generally has been cool at night (8-10 C), with a mix of sun and cloud, and occasional showers.
Interestingly, when you look at the volume from the outside of the nalgene bottle, it looks like there are only enough insects collected to (barely) cover the bottom of the container, but when you take the lid off and look directly inside you see there are dozens and dozens of very tiny insects, along with more usual sizes of flies and one wasp (which looks positively brobdinagian by comparison).
I would estimate individuals at 100 even though by volume they wouldn’t even register on the paper label, much less any of the graduated numbers.
End of Week 1
The first week of our collection has been a success! The trap remained intact all week and was not disturbed. Mornings overall have been very cool, while our highs have been quite high. Day temperatures are ranging between 5C in the morning and 20C in the late afternoon. The winds blew in today, so we actually took the entire trap down for the weekend and will re-stake it on Monday morning.
This is our total catch for week 1.
We’ll be back at it on Monday for week 2!