How do I collect my own bugs?

(A) Watch Glass

First off, what the heck is a watch glass? Watch glasses happen to be shallow circular bowls, basically like a slice off the edge of a sphere. They are extremely useful for examining and photographing aquatic insects, as they will hold "just enough" water to keep them alive & in a natural state. Though the photo doesn't show it very well, the 7" watch glass shown is sitting on top of a sheet of felt spread over the top of a regular bowl. This way I can change the felt to change the color of the background behind the insect, which changes what you can see in a photograph.

(B) Camera

This is the camera I've been using to photograph the insects found on this site. It is an approximately 25 year old Yashika on a somewhat extended loan from my father -- here it looks like it has the 135mm lens with a closeup attachment... Its completely manual, and the lens doesn't seem to be able to focus out to infinity anymore, but it seems to work OK otherwise... So basically what I'm trying to say here is photographing aquatic insects certainly does not require state of the art equipment...

(C) Kick Net

This is actually the most essential element of this list, and luckily it is also the least expensive... Basically it is a 3' by 3' sheet of fiberglass window screen tacked onto a couple 3/4 inch dowels. To use it, you just wade out to some spot in the river, facing downstream, carefully dip the net into the water until it rests on the bottom, then gently kick around the rocks near your feet. Nymphs will be knocked from the rocks and swept into the net. When I first started doing this I would vigorously shift my feet around on the bottom, thinking it would stir up more insects. In fact it would stir up more insect parts. Plus it probably damages the stream bottom quite a bit. To get the more tenaciously attached insects involves actually reaching into the water, gently picking up rocks, and examining them. In colder rivers this may be a bit unpleasant, but I'd think keeping in mind that you are advancing the cause of Science should be more than enough to keep you warm... I should also say that the act of dipping the net into the water should be done slowly and carefully to minimize the chance of you losing your balance. Remember that the net itself probably cost $5 -- if you start to lose your balance, let go of it. You wouldn't want someone downstream to be finding you in their kick net...

(D) Photocopied Articles

If you are lucky enough to live in an area near to a university library, take advantage of it. A bit of creative research, and you might local emergence charts, articles about interesting species, even insect surveys of your favorite river!

(E) Photo Album

You have to have something to put your photographs of insects in. I found some that are essentially 3-ring binders, with the "magnetic" style pages. This way I can organize it by insect, and don't have to shuffle around the entire album if I get another good photo of the same insect.

(F) Bug Books

Probably more has been learned about aquatic insects by flyfishers than any other group of people (By necessity). As a result, the best resource for introductory aquatic entomology books would be at your local fly shop. I happen to like the ones shown, because they have nice, full color photographs. I have yet to find one that is completely to my liking though -- none of them really have photos of enough insects...

(G) Glass Vials

I always carry small 3 or 4 dram glass bottles with me when on the river. This is by far the best way to temporarily store insects until you get home or back to camp. At first I brought a single jar with me and stuck all the insects in the same jar. But I always found that the smaller insects had legs, antennae, etc missing when I brought them home. Turns out the larger insects would tide themselves over with the occaisional snack when they saw fit. Now I isolate everybody. If kept in the refrigerator, insects can usually live in the vials for a day or two... But I've had one survive for over a week before... Hmm... I think those last two sentences just gave away my marital status didn't they...

(H) Modified Film Cases

Glass vials are fine for nymphs, but what about the adults? I tried putting them in the vials, but after a few hours water would condense on the insides and eventually cause the delicate adult to be damaged. The solution was to allow air to flow into the vial. Seeing as how I had several spare film cases floating around, I modified a few of them to hold adult insects. Basically the modification is simple: Just cut a hole in the top, and epoxy a scrap section of window screen over it. This allows air flow into the film case, but no insect flow out of it.

Cool, so now I can go do this too!

C'mon, I'm waiting!

dmason@zebu.uoregon.edu