2022 ASIW Day 1 – June 13
I returned to the ASIW (Art and Science in the Woods) as a visiting instructor this year. It was a pleasure to work with students in so many different classes and share my passion for insects (the little things that run our world). I am most appreciative of the instructors who asked me to join their classes during the week.
Day 1, I visited the Aboriginal Survival Arts Program (ASAP) class in the afternoon. During the first morning, instructors spent time with their classes and covered what would happen during the entire week. I spent roughly 2 hours with the class during the afternoon. Since this was a survival class, I began the afternoon with a discussion of insects as food and we sampled some cooked crickets and meal-worms (at least some students sampled them). We played my version of insect bingo and the first student to observe sufficient diversity won a prize (which was awarded at the end of the day). I have been using this format for a few years to help students remain engaged as we search for insects and try to document the biodiversity of insects found at or near the Sun Foundtion in rural Marshall Co., Illinois.
Insect taxa encountered
I provide this list of insect taxa we encountered. They are arranged alphabetically by order and family within each order. These are the families of insects we observed during this class. Please note that each link to more information will open a new browser window/ tab.
Totals for this afternoon – 6 orders, 33 families of insects. We also observed spiders, chiggers, daddy long legs (Opiliones), ticks, and other arthropods during the afternoon. Not bad for a couple hours of observations.
Order Coleoptera (beetles)
- Family Cantharidae
- Family Carabidae
- Family Cerambycidae
- Family Chrysomelidae
- Family Cicindellidae
- Family Cleridae
- Family Coccinellidae
- Family Curculionidae
- Family Lycidae
- Family Scarabaeidae
Order Diptera (flies)
- Family Agromyzidae
- Family Asilidae
- Family Bombyliidae
- Family Chironomidae
- Family Therevidae
- Family Tabanidae
Order Hemiptera (true bugs)
- Family Anthocoridae
- Family Aphididae
- Family Blissidae
- Family Cercopidae
- Family Fulgoridae
- Family Miridae
- Family Pentatomidae
Order Hymenoptera (ants, bees, wasps)
- Family Formicidae
Order Lepidoptera (butterflies, moths, skippers)
- Family Erebidae
- Family Geometridae
- Family Lycaenidae
- Family Nymphalidae
- Family Pterophoridae
- Family Pyralidae
Order Orthoptera (grasshoppers and crickets)
- Family Tettogoniidae
- Family Tridactylidae
- Family Trigoniidae