Insect Ecology @ Au Sable - spring 2024

Ah... the sun was shining, the insects emerging, and the bugs were buzzing—the perfect conditions for an uneventful insect ecology outing to  the Bear Lake Bog of northern Michigan…or so we thought. After a quick trip in our van--during which our professor informed us of the characteristics of the boggy ecosystem we were about to encounter--our class arrived at the bog located few miles south of Mancelona, MI. A typical sphagnum moss bog of northern MI http://www.naturalheritage.state.pa.us/Community.aspx?=16042  Never had I ventured into a bog before, or if I had previously, I (like many do) had erroneously mistaken it for a  pond. Bogs form in areas of depressed ground, where water runs in but cannot escape. Characteristic of bogs, an extensive mat of sphagnum moss covered the stagnant waters, providing a sort of “floating island” of vegetation for plants and animals to make their homes. Due to the stagnant water and colder conditions, the aquatic envir...

                                                                                                Religious Assassin A Little Bit of Background The Greek word mantikos stood for prophet or soothsayer, and that is where the word mantis originates from (Hadley, 2018). There are over 2,300 mantis species worldwide; approximately 18-20 of them currently reside in the United States (Oder, 2018). The praying mantis started out somewhere in Europe, and were later discovered in North America in 1899 (Writer, 2019). The taxonomy for a praying mantis goes something like this: Kingdom- Animalia, Phylum- Arthropoda, Class- Insecta, Order- Mantodea, and Family- Mantidae. 80% of the Mantodea order belong to the Mantidae (Hadley, 2018). Their heads and ...

As I pull up my waders and grab my D-net, I’m wondering what insects are lurking in the crooks and crannies of the stream in front of me. The stream is hidden in the middle of a forest and has many shrubs and trees growing around it. I anticipate that many midges (Diptera) will be found along with an occasional mayfly (Ephemeroptera) and caddisfly (Trichoptera). I slowly step down into the water and use my net as a crutch because the last thing I want to do is fall face first into the stream. The water reaches my mid-thigh, and I can feel the cold water as I begin scraping the bottom of the stream with my net.  When I bring up the net to my face to inspect for insects, I become disappointed because I don’t see any critters. But then I take a closer look and see multiple tiny insects squirming around in the mesh. I cautiously pick them out of the net, being careful not to squash them, and set them aside in a bucket.  The hunt for aquatic insects continues for about ten...

         When one arrives to college, they believe that every step they take is well placed, but as you proceed, you can quickly find yourself drowning in expectations and sinking into low morale. When that happens, the only thing to do is to pick yourself up and move forward. This experience is not exclusive to college alone, in fact, it is synonymous with how Insect Ecology's field trip to the Bear Lake Bog went. We all showed up in the usual gear. Waders, aspirators, butterfly nets, and water nets. When we began to follow Dr. Hoekman onto the bog, none of us knew the full extent of what we were stepping into. See, Bear Lake Bog is a rich freshwater bog, and to convey just how rich, this blog will detail the specifications of bogs, and the types of wildlife we encountered on our trip. Aerial View of a typical bog tallinndaytrip.com          A bog by definition is "wet muddy ground to soft to support a heavy body" and in most ca...