Revisiting Paulik Park, Richmond

I arrived back in Richmond three days ago, and I have been just relaxing and not doing much outdoor stuff.  Today, after doing some errands for my parents, I drove my mother to Paulik Park to look for some wildlife.  I don't think I have been to this park during any of the summers, so I was surprised to see all the beautiful flowers and pollinators and hummingbirds that were hanging around the garden.

Almost like a secret garden.

St. Louis Zoo and Insectarium

After the field project presentations and clean-up the field equipments in the lab, all the students decided to go to St. Louis Zoo (free, by the way) to pay Mr. Ed Spevak and the insectarium a visit.

Before heading back to the apartment to put my stuff away first, I came across this Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia) on the sidewalk in the drizzling rain.  I gently picked it up and put it on a tree where it has more shelter.  What a beauty!


We were at the zoo with only about 1.5 hours to spare before closing, so we only had time to visit the insectarium.

More insects from Ivvavik National Park - Conclusion of 2011

I hope I haven't post these photos yet. Life is incredibly busy at the moment. I am still in the processing of sorting and analyzing my data from my first field season. On top of that, I need to find and hire a field assistant, have my second supervisory committee meeting before I leave for fieldwork, buy my plane tickets and field equipments, do my taxes, sort out my housing situation while I am gone as well as when I return from the field, and I am going to St. Louis for 10 days in April to take part in a pollination biology field course. Just listing it makes me wonder how I am going to get it all done, even though I know I will somehow.

Well, before I head out to Inuvik in two months, I really should post the remaining of my insect photos from Ivvavik National Park. So here they are, the final photographic post of my 2011 field season. Once again, thanks to all the kind folks at BugGuide for their help.

Nordic Mountain Grasshopper (Melanoplus frigidus) - male

Definitely a leafhopper (Family Cicadellidae), perhaps a Limotettix sp.?


I really should take more photos of the bees last summer. Will try to do more of that this summer. Here is an Andrena sp. (Mining Bee) collecting pollen from Lapland rosebay (Rhododendron lapponicum) flowers.






Here's a plant bug (Family Miridae) on a soapberry plant, people think it is a Lygus sp.


One of the rare visitors of my soapberry plant - an Azure butterfly.


Towards the end of the day, I was tired and took my socks off and laid them on the field. Pretty soon, a Silvery Blue (Glaucopsyche lygdamus) showed up and starting drinking the salts, I suppose.


Lastly, a Freija Fritillary (Boloria freija) on a vaccinium (blueberry) plant. It is surprising how much you learn about plants and insects after one field season of studying them.

Time for bed.

Deer on the way from school

It has been another fine and strangely warm weekend. After finishing up the movie I watched last night and getting groceries in the morning, I biked to school again to do some more work.

It seems that the warm temperature has been signaling the insects from emergence, however, I have yet to see any flower buds opening yet on any of the trees. I wonder if this is going to cause some problems with insects needing plant nectar and pollen for survival. On the way to school, I stopped at one of the feeders to see if there are any birds. Instead, I photographed these insects and spider.

Some Hemiptera.


One of the wolf spiders always hopping in the leaf litter and substrate.


Unknown fly lost part of its fore leg already.

Even without the grackles, chickadees, or blackbirds, you can always count on the robins to show up and give you some interesting photographs.

Robin with a worm.


Looking at me.

After finishing up work around 6pm and biking back home, I noticed there were something through the sumacs on the side of the trail. Then I realized it was a White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus)! It was merely about 10 meters away from me, and it didn't react at all when it saw me photographing it.

Eating away.




Beautiful animal.

It wasn't until two other bikers and a couple with a small dog that deer decided it had enough of us and pounced away with its white tail in the alarming position. Then I saw it joined up with another deer not too far away from the bike trail, but I decided to leave them be and be on my way.

Not something you see everyday on the way to school, I'd say.

366 days ago (2011-03-17)...

Dead wasp came out too early

Today, while leaving school, I found a dead wasp outside one of the buildings. It was really cold at night and I was surprised to see an insect coming out this early in the year (although it was unusually warm yesterday). Poor critter.

So I brought it home and took some photos. It looks like it belongs in the family Pompilidae (Spider Wasps). Unfortunately, I haven't seen any spiders yet this time of the year for it to prey on.

Learning in CNC (Canadian National Collection)

The place where the course is being held is Canadian National Collection, and yesterday we got a tour of the Diptera collections by one of the course instructors, Dr. Skevington. It is quite an amazing place to see all these wonderful creatures treasured by taxonomists who started these collection centuries ago.

Walking through the hallways where the insects are being kept.

An assortment of photos and topics - flies, spiders, wasp, outdoor, and others

Many photos to share, so I thought I organize them chronologically.

Jan 25 - (Possibly) figured out where the bristles on the meron (the plate just above and behind the mid coxa) are.

Look near where the lower calypter is.

Dipterans - Families Phoridae and Dolichopodidae

This fly belongs in Family Phoridae, also known as scuttle flies or humpback flies. One of the key features would be the enlarged hind femur (shown above).

Quick glimpse of my work

So this is what I have been working on lately.

Washing, drying, and pinning my insects.

Jumping Plant Lice, Cuckoo wasps, and Dance flies

Sharing some of the photos of insects that I did not know and/or thought was cool-looking.

This critter was captured on June 11, 2011 in a yellow pan trap in my "1" study site. I didn't know what it was until I asked for help at BugGuide. Jumping Plant Lice (Family Psyllidae) can be identified by their hard and shining thorax and has 5 to 10 antennal segments.

Friday before the long weekend

Yesterday, I found a shield bug outside a glass door on campus and since I didn't bring my macro/telephoto lens, I brought it home in a glass jar.

And today, I brought it back to school (along with the lens) and took photos of it on the dead yarrow.

Don't know what species this is, but it is still pretty cool-looking.

Identified insects from last summer

Aside from all the photos from this past summer that I have not uploaded yet, I also have an unknown folder for some of the insects that I wasn't able to identify from last summer. Well, today I found the ID for few of them and decided to make one post out of it.

Dogbane Beetle (Chrysochus auratus)

Giant Eastern Crane Fly and other thoughts

So the second day of teaching assistant training came and went. It wasn't as helpful as the first day I found because a lot of the materials were repeated (at least twice). The most useful point was probably how to handle the icebreakers, especially on the first day, or what to do when the students are not as responsive as you like them to be. It seems that Trent puts a lot of emphasis on providing a good learning atmosphere for the undergraduate students. I wonder if the graduate students in UBC went through similar trainings as well.

Anyways, that was yesterday. Today I mainly stayed in my office, finishing up paperworks, meeting other graduate students, etc. However, the most interesting thing that happened today was probably finding this cool-looking (but dead) crane fly outside the building.


It wasn't too difficult to find the identity of this distinctive critter. It is a Giant Eastern Crane Fly (Pedicia albivitta) with the distinct patterns on its wings. In my field guide, it strangely points out that they have very long and brittle legs, which I thought was a no-brainer (unless the legs are even more fragile compare to other crane flies).

I checked out some of the other graduate students' offices and they had amazing wildlife photos, drawings and artwork on their desks while my (and my office-mates) had empty desks. So I decided to pin this insect as a memorable first insect pinned here in Ontario (actually it is my first pinned insect ever).

Quite a memorable day, I suppose.

Insects at London Farm & Goldfinch

I visited London Farm for the first time since coming back. All the tulips are gone, replaced by other brightly-coloured flowers.

There were different kinds of insects in the garden as well.

Looking back at Inuvik Community Greenhouse

My family and I went out for meals the entire day, as well as getting some groceries and running errands, so here are some photos from July 23 when I visited Inuvik Community Greenhouse - definitely much greener compare to almost two months ago.

It's quite incredible to see the fruits and veggies and flowers that the local residents grow. The benefits of living in a place that receives 24 hours of daylight for a couple of months in the summer.

Two unknown insects

Trying to figure out two insects that I saw today.

A hornet chewing on a wooden pole at Gilbert Road Community Garden. Asked for help here. [Edit: I think it may be a male Bald-faced Hornet, Dolichovespula maculata, gathering fibers for nest-making.]

Insects in Richmond

I went out for a bike ride this afternoon. Such a nice day. Can't believe it is only summer here, whereas autumn is changing the colours of the leaves in the Arctic Circle. There are many things different here down South, such as the large trees, people, lifestyle, inexpensive food, and biodiversity.

I stopped at Gilbert Road Community Garden and spent a great amount of time photographing the insects that came my way.

Yellow-faced Bumblebee (Bombus vosnesenskii) sticking out its long tongue.

More from Inuvik, NWT

Went out for a walk yesterday morning before heading to Parks Canada office. The neighborhood we were placed in. Not exactly superb, but it's interesting (and safe).

First day of May

Maybe it's just me but the last few days feel like summer - warm, somewhat humid, and sunny. Although it's suppose to change by tomorrow. Anyways, today's the second day of field equipment shopping where my mother and I went to MEC to get me a watch, pillow, natural toothpaste and body wash, and other items. I think everything is bought. Just need to start taking out the necessary clothes and packing them.

After shopping, coming back home, and eating lunch. I headed out again to enjoy the nice day.

Somewhat hazy day.

Fly with cool eyes

Another fair weather day.

Very low tide. It was actually pretty steep walking from the 'dock' down to the floating platform.