Skywatch Friday - Rounding out the Conference

Sunset Over Tucson

I've been negligent in my blogging about the remainder of my trip to Arizona. On Tuesdaty of last week, the conference began. We arrived at Rio Rico around lunch time. John joined Nancy, who was co-presenting a workshop with him. They ran off to prepare. Vincent and I registered and headed out Ruby Road for some more collecting. We got a some nice aquatic insects for live displays at the Museum. I also found a really interesting grasshopper. It lived on bare rock, and the color pattern blended in beautifully. It's obvious that it relies on its camouflage, because it's very reluctant to fly. This made it easy to take specimens. More about this species later.

Lichen Grasshopper

Tuesday night, I went out blacklighting with Mark from St. Louis and Ken from Florida. A fun evening, and I got a nice photo of the impressive ichneumon wasp that showed up.

Ichneumon Wasp

Some people have recently expressed concern about ichnuemons that they have encountered. Screaming like a girl has figured in the discussion. Here. let me put my hand right up next to this one as a size comparison.



Wednesday was field trip day. We went back put to the Santa Ritas looking at butterflies. I got nice pictures of an Empress Leilia (not to be confused with Princess Leia) butterfly. Once again this year, I couldn't believe how green the desert was. It looked like I was back east.

Empress Leilia

A very green desert near Box Canyon

Thurdsay was my talk, which went OK. I did an evening black lighting trip to Box Canyon. Mark's mercury vapor lamp pulled in HUGE numbers of moths and beetles. I don't think I've ever seen so much on the sheet at one time. Species diversity was not as good as the quantity would have led me to expect. Still a good time.

Very heavy visitation to the sheet. When the bugs are this thick, they are going down your shirt, in your ears and up your nose. Still, it's lots of fun.

Friday was time around the conference, talking to colleagues and listening to talks. I stayed up too late watching friends play Texas Hold 'em. Much fun. Saturday night, I went up to Tucson for dinner with Homer. That's where the sunset photo was taken. Homer is a great guy, we had lots of fun talking about many subjects. On his blog (where there's a photo of us taken just before the cops kicked us out of Signal Mountain Park), he claims that we were gossiping about other bloggers. I would NEVER gossip about other bloggers because gossip is the lowest form of human discourse. Bonus points to whoever can tell me what movie that line comes from.

French Joe Canyon

Not much was happening on Sunday, so John and I went out for more collecting and photography. We stopped by French Joe Canyon near Sierra Vista (Hi, Cobban) and saw arroyo grasshoppers. I was glad to see them, because they had vanished last year. Monday, alas, was time to depart. We had a bit of time to kill on the way to the airport, so we drove the length of Sahuarita Road (Hi, Kathie). Some of the desert there was blooming like it was springtime. John caught a species of metallic wood boring beetle that neither of us has seen before. We only found that one. I still don't want to talk about it.

April in August along Sahuarita road

Pleasing Fungus Beetle (Gibbifer californicus) photographed in San Rafael Valley

It was another great conference. It is always good to see friends and colleagues. Many of these people I only get to see at the conference. Plus they always spark new plans. I'll probably be visiting Seattle and Portland in September to view breeding facilities for the Oregon Silverspot butterfly. Too much fun!

Check out the rest of Skywatch.

Storm update: Things are back to normal. I was without power for a bit over 24 hours. The tree blocking my street took about 2 days to remove. Thanks to all who expressed concern. We're just fine.