Terrestrial Arthropods

Last week in lab, we went hunting for bugs outside.

I can't tell you how much I got a kick out of seeing a bunch of 20+ year olds outside digging through the dirt looking for bugs.

Looking for bugs next to one of the whale skeletons down at the lab.

Look at that view!!

We were given 5 different classes under the phylum arthropoda that we had to find. Once my group had all of them in our jar, we headed back inside. 

Now here comes the cool part...

We had to draw each bug into our notebook and to do that, they had to be still.

Apparently if you freeze a bug with dry ice, when it thaws out, it walks away like nothing happened!! 

How cool is that!!

My frozen Endopterogote aka the cricket

Terrestrial Crustacean: Armadillidium vulgare aka the rollie-pollie

Close up of the cricket

Myriapoda: Diplopoda aka the millipede

When I looked through the microscope, its legs were still moving. It gave me the creeps big time!!! 

Chelicerate: Aracnida aka the spider

I would have to say this was probably my favorite lab. Hunting for bugs was fun. Certainly brought me back to my many hours spent as a child playing in the dirt in the backyard. It was really interesting freezing them and being able to see them under a microscope then unfreezing them and getting to watch them walk away. And the best thing of all, nothing to dissect!!