Buggin' Out In Norman

By Anonymous -
By: Beth Phillips, Kasey Throgmorton, and Hunter Baskett

Just a short forty minute drive down the highway, a few turns, and after you park, you will arrive at the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History! This museum has millions awesome organisms to check out, and it is definitely worth the drive. Lucky for us, we got a behind-the-scenes tour and were shown around the entire Invertebrate floor by an entomologist. While on our tour, we were given free range to observe and take note of anything we preferred, so here are some of the few things we were interested in! Enjoy, bug lovers...


This Sam Noble Museum of Natural History’s recent invertebrates collection holds over 500,000 specimens and over 280,000 of those specimens have been catalogued on internet databases for research. They still haven’t been through EVERYTHING, but they believe their oldest specimen dates back to the year 1898. While the collection holds specimens from over 100 countries, much of the collect showcases Oklahoma’s native insects. In fact, the official spider list for the state of Oklahoma is based on the collection at the Sam Noble museum. Richard Loy collected much of their Lepidopteran collection in the 1940s and 1950s. He was actually arrested in eastern Oklahoma for suspicion of Ku Klux Klan activity when he was out collecting with a white light sheet. While they do have a large Lepidopteran collection, the largest portion of their collection is their Coleopterans. They have many recently rediscovered European beetles suspected to have been collected before World War II. One of their native specimens is the endangered American Burying Beetle, which has a habitat near one of the military bases here in Oklahoma. The reason that this insect is important is because of the potential impact this insect has on the building of the Keystone Pipeline right through our state and one of its few habitats left in the region.    


This entire collection of insects was retrieved from ONE backyard in Eastern Oklahoma. This entomologist very well could have had a heart attack from the excitement he experienced throughout this process! It seems as if every major Order of insects is well represented and from this, researchers at the Sam Noble Museum were able to determine even more of the exact species that call the great state of Oklahoma home.


Photos by: Kasey Throgmorton
This is an up close shot of a Luna Moth that was found in the Eastern Oklahoma backyard. These gorgeous moths are in the family Saturniidae and have been found anywhere from Nova Scotia all the way west to Saskatchewan, eastern North Dakota, southern and central Florida, the Gulf coast, eastern Texas, and even now eastern Oklahoma. They usually focus on occupying deciduous hardwood forests the females often lay their 200 or so eggs on the bottom of Black Walnut tree leaves. 

 These are a great example of adults that do not have mouthparts, so they only have about a week to live once they've escaped their confinement. An interesting fact about these moths is that even after leaving the cocoon, their wings are not fully ready to fly. Well, they can't eat so they don't have much time to survive, so what do they do? Luna moths rests on a tree trunk and hangs its wings so they can fill with blood! Finally, the way to tell the difference between a male and female between these moths is to look at the antennae--males have bigger, bushier ones.

Overall, this was an unbelievable backstage experience that has been very informative and helpful with our Entomology course and will continue to be throughout the semester. Knowing that we have access to these thousands and thousands of resources at the tips of our fingers is very reassuring and encouraging as we begin our steps towards our own collections. 

Hope you've enjoyed our first blog, keep an eye out for the next one!

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Sources: 
"Butterflies and Moths of North America | Collecting and Sharing Data about Lepidoptera." Butterflies and Moths of North America | Collecting and Sharing Data about Lepidoptera. Web. 10 Feb. 2015. <http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Actias-luna>.
"Luna Moth." Luna Moth. Web. 10 Feb. 2015. <http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/luna_moth.htm>.
"SNOMNH Recent Invertebrates Main Page." SNOMNH Recent Invertebrates MainPage. Web. 6 Feb. 2015. <http://www.snomnh.ou.edu/collections-research/invertebrates.htm>.
"South Dakota Ecological Services Field Office: American Burying Beetle." South Dakota Ecological Services Field Office: American Burying Beetle. Web. 6 Feb.2015. <http://www.fws.gov/southdakotafieldoffice/beetle.htm>.
White, Mel. "Keystone XL Pipeline: 4 Animals and 3 Habitats in Its Path." National Geographic. National Geographic Society, 14 Feb. 2014. Web. 6 Feb. 2015.   <http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2014/02/140214-animals-and-habitats-in-keystone-xl-path/>.

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