Biology Bug Project

[Year of the Rooster]

Hi Bycers,

For biology class I have to find 20 different species of insects. As of now I have 13, would anyone happen to know any secrets on how to find/attract them? I already have these ones:

Cicada
Bush Cricket
Large moth (don't know the name)
Small moth (" ")
Mayfly or a male mosquito
Stink bug
some kind of Weevil
Black Ant
Japanese Beetle
a Black Cricket (Don't know the name)
an Orange Beetle (" ")
a Red Beetle (" ")
and a Fly

I realize with the cold weather coming that I may not have much time left, especially if a frost hits. There is no size limit to the bugs either. As long as they are different species then all will be well.

Spiders are not insects! They have eight legs, not six.

ETA: Thank you!!!!

 

[Rosalind]

Hang a white or light-colored sheet up between two trees. Hang it such that the top is spread out but the bottom is kind of curled up into a tube--like, take some sort of round wire or plastic thing and tape the bottom of the sheet around it. A plastic milk jug with the bottom cut out, with the wide end taped to the sheet and the narrow end sticking out the bottom is fine.

Wait till it gets dark. Put a pan of rubbing alcohol below the round opening in the sheet. Then, shine the biggest, brightest flashlight you can find at the sheet so it's bright white. Be patient, it will take the bugs some time to find you. After a while, depending on your location and how close you are to water, the pan will be full of stunned bugs that whacked into the sheet at top speed and fell into the alcohol and drowned.

 

[poppycat]

Leave an outdoor light on at night, and go visit it at about 11pm.

If you have a bug net, visit some tall grass and sweep the net back and forth through the grass. Works best on a sunny day.

Turn up a rotten log.

Turn up a rock.

 

[poppycat]

Leave an outdoor light on at night, and go visit it at about 11pm.

If you have a bug net, visit some tall grass and sweep the net back and forth through the grass. Works best on a sunny day.

Turn up a rotten log.

Turn up a rock.

 

[chicken_boy_Kurt]

I was going to say centipedes but they have too many legs millipedes aren't insects either

. Or like poppycat said just go look under a log (though centipedes live under logs

).

 

[The Chicken Lady]

Look by a pond or other body of water.

 

[patandchickens]

Ooo, bug collections

Wire (or etc) the opening of an old pillowcase so it stays open, then use it as a beater net to whack around in tall meadowgrass or the tall goldenrods etc along the side of a road. Use a back and forth constantly moving style so that bugs that go in STAY in. Periodically give it an extra coupla whirls around your head to knock everything to the bottom of the bag, then look in and poke thru the little plant bits you've accidentally captured <g> and see whatcha got.

Go to the woods, find an old rotted log, roll it GENTLY AND REPLACE IT AFTERWARDS, see whatcha got.

If you are in a livestock area, use a stick to poke under old cowpatties or horse apples or whatnot, and see whatcha find.

Dipnet around in a pond, or wade into a stream and pick up rocks and look on the undersides of them (be aware that much of what you find, especially under stream rox, will be larval/nymphal stages -- I dunno whether you're allowed to have them or need adults?)

Leave yer porch light on for an hour after sunset, then go out and net whatever's flying around or crawling up the side of the house by the light.

Have fun,

Pat

 

[Year of the Rooster]

Quote:
Thank you so much!

And I forgot to mention that I DO need the adult forms.

Thanks everybody!

even though kurt wasn't much help but hey.. that's kurt

 

[mom'sfolly]

Leave a piece of meat and a piece of fruit outside. You'll get lots of different insects to come visit. Then be prepared to catch them. Go out under a street light at night. You should be able to find both ground and air insects. Good luck, it sound like fun. You should be able to get fruit flies by setting a piece of banana out on the counter for a couple of days. Any open field should have a variety of butterflies, even this late in the season.

 

[dacjohns]

Since this is a biology project you should remember that a bug is a specific type of insect. There is a lot of difference between a mayfly and a large mosquito. Your stink bug might be a stink beetle (don't know where you live or what the critter looks like).

All the methods already mentioned are good.

Look under dead animals like roadkill. You might be able to get some carrion beetles.

Yellow jackets are real active where I live right now. Leave out something sweet and they should show up if they are in the area.

There are lots of different kinds of flies.

Good luck. Shouldn't be too hard, especially since you already have 13. I had to collect 100 for a college entomology course. It turned into a family project.