{"id":9943,"date":"2022-06-01T20:39:41","date_gmt":"2022-06-01T20:39:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/2022\/06\/09\/mayx-snapshot-insect-diversity\/"},"modified":"2022-09-07T15:48:29","modified_gmt":"2022-09-07T19:48:29","slug":"mayx-snapshot-insect-diversity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/mayx-snapshot-insect-diversity\/","title":{"rendered":"MayX Snapshot: Meet the beetles \u2013 and the dragonflies, and the grasshoppers"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week, we\u2019re highlighting courses from May Experience<\/a> \u2013 a chance for students to explore topics beyond the typical academic year.<\/em><\/p>\n

COURSE:<\/strong> Insect Diversity
\nINSTRUCTOR:<\/strong> Wade Worthen, Rose J. Forgione Professor of Biology<\/a>
\nDESCRIPTION:<\/strong> Field-based survey of the major groups of insects. Lecture will focus on the evolutionary history, ecology and taxonomy of insects. The primary component will be collection, identification and preservation of insect specimens on campus and at the Furman Forest.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While many in South Carolina have spent this spring trying to keep insects as far away from themselves as possible, Wade Worthen\u2019s MayX students have done the opposite. Half of their final grade depends on it.<\/p>\n

Worthen, the Rose J. Forgione Professor of Biology, hopes his Insect Diversity students come away with an appreciation of the ecological and economic impact of insects, along with their variety and ubiquity.<\/p>\n

\u201cInsects constitute about half the species that we\u2019ve identified on our planet,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, to study diversity, you really need to study insects. They are ecologically important in myriad ways, and economically important as pests of agricultural crops and pollinators of a lot of our foodstuffs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A

A student examines a specimen during a MayX Insect Diversity course.<\/p><\/div>\n

The students are getting to see that diversity up close by creating their own collections of samples of the variety of local insect species.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have about an hour of lecture each day, and then we head outside and collect bugs,\u201d Worthen said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a blast during our lab outings,\u201d said Austyn Feigenbaum \u201924. \u201cMe, Dr. Worthen and my classmates swinging around bug nets while clinging to our kill jars and tubes like aspiring entomologists.\u201d<\/p>\n

The class often hunts on campus in the woods behind Daniel Chapel as well as in the Furman Forest<\/a> in the Blue Wall Preserve in northeast Greenville County. Much of the collecting was done with a net, but some specimens had to be coaxed out with tools like a Berlese funnel (or Tullgren funnel<\/a>), which uses light to force organisms from a soil sample down into a collection bottle. Students could also use pitfall traps or ultraviolet light to add to their collections.<\/p>\n

Once they\u2019ve caught them \u2013 either pinning them into a physical collection or clicking them into a photographic record \u2013 the students identified each individual insect to \u201cdifferent levels of taxonomic resolution,\u201d said Worthen.<\/p>\n

Each collection had to contain at least 100 insects, all identified on the order level \u2013 \u201cas broad as the difference between a fly and a beetle and a grasshopper and a dragonfly,\u201d he explained. Then, 50 had to be identified on the family level, \u201cwhich would distinguish a fruit fly from a house fly from a crane fly from a horse fly,\u201d said Worthen. Finally, 20 of the specimens had to be identified down to the species level: European honeybees (Apis mellifera<\/em>), for example, or blue dasher dragonfly (Pachydiplax longipennis<\/em>). Each collection had to represent 12 different orders and 50 different families.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the class ended, I was familiar with their importance as detritivores and pollinators while also being able to identify, classify and display these different insect orders and families,\u201d Feigenbaum said. \u201cEverything discussed about insects in the course was new to me, which was encouraging and stimulating, as my brain was fried from spring semester class loads.\u201d<\/p>\n

Support the May Experience at Furman with a donation now.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n