Day 1 - First Day at the HMNS

    Today was the first day of interning at the Houston Museum of Natural Science-- specifically in the 'entomology' section which focuses on the study of insects. Kaeli Nichols, a butterfly biologist that had been working there for a year, showed me everything that I'd be doing during my A-Term.

    The first thing that we did was tend to the needs of the insects in the Brown Hall of Entomology. Kaeli showed me the steps that she usually goes through when maintaining the habitats that the insects stay in: (1) Check if the enclosure is fogged up. If it is, you don't need to use the spray bottle to increase the humidity and simply need to wipe down the glass. If the enclosure has sand at the bottom, you only need to give the back wall a decent spray. (2) Change out the food in the enclosure if it looks gross. Simple as that. (3) If there are any dead insects that were meant to feed the insect featured in the exhibit, remove them. If you haven't seen the featured insect, it might be dead. "It isn't rocket science," as Kaeli said! 

    The next thing that Kaeli demonstrated was how to replace the food sources for the butterflies in the Cockrell Butterfly Garden, AKA the 'Conservatory'. First, we removed the torches, hangers, and pots that held the nectar for the butterflies. The pots held banana brew, which was a mix of brown sugar and really ripe bananas. Since it had been sitting there in the humidity for about a week, it looked absolutely delicious! We brought all the materials to a sink in a back room where Charles the Iguana was bathing in the bliss of his so-called "retirement". Then we took out new torches and hangers (along with sponges to put in the torches/hangers), placed them back out in the conservatory and topped them up with nectar. The pots were also restocked with the delectable banana brew. Soon after, we removed the suet baskets and plates that held fruit and replaced them with freshly chopped oranges, kiwi, pineapples, watermelon, and more. After that, we cleaned up and prepared for the next task. I think the most challenging thing about this part of the project was the fact that I had to remember where all the hangers, plates, and torches were located throughout the garden. I'll have plenty of time to get lost in the next two weeks, so no worries! 

    This next task was definitely my favourite. Kaeli showed me a door located behind the chrysalis display, which basically was where you could open up the chambers and collect the hatched butterflies for the first release of the day (generally, there are two releases). For each chamber, after opening the doors, most of them tended to fly around, which was totally fine. Kaeli showed me how to catch em' with a net! She also showed me the proper way to handle the butterflies. When they're at rest and their wings are closed, all you need to do is take your pointer finger and your middle finger and clamp them around the wings. This doesn't harm the butterfly at all! You can also gently make a claw with your hand if they're beating their wings. Once you have one, all you need to do is put them into a butterfly 'cage', which is the same material as a butterfly net. Some butterflies will have floppy, damp wings if they have just hatched, and all you need to do is let them chill there until their wings dry and stiffen. Unfortunately, some butterflies won't always make it. Those who have curled wings or haven't hatched fast enough, they are euthanised. It isn't a very dignifying way to go, as you simply place them in the freezer along with other dead relatives that didn't make it, but it is certainly a way to go. After this, I took a sponge and some bleach to wipe down the chamber. This is because meconium is released when a butterfly hatches, and it. Gets. Everywhere. It also just so happens to resemble blood, which is pleasant. There are paper towels that rest above where the chrysalides are hanging, which just helps keep the humidity (which I can check on a gadget next to the chambers) high. Since these towels get gross fast, I tossed the old ones and place two layers of four paper towels on top of each other and douse them in water. The bottom of the enclosure has a sort of carpet that sometimes gets gross, so all I do is change it out with a new carpet. To increase the humidity more, Kaeli told me to just dump water at the bottom of the enclosure. The final thing is wiping down the window of the display. After that, I took the collected butterflies to the conservatory and released them, which was gorgeous to watch!

    The final thing that Kaeli showed me how to do is care for the insects that aren't on display. Each container is marked with a green, a yellow, or a red sticker that shows you how dangerous each insect is. Luckily, I only dealt with the chambers that had a green sticker. She slowly went around the room and showed me the same steps that applied to the insects on display. This time, though, there were containers with eggs. All you had to do with these containers was take out any babies that had hatched, place them in a container with other babies of the same species, and give the eggs a good spray. I was also able to tend to the containers that had grubs and cockroaches on my own. All you did was replicate the remnants of the food in them and spray them down. I will say, I am very proud of myself for not only removing the food but replacing the food from a giant enclosure containing about 100 hissing cockroaches. They did not hiss, that is just their glamourous name! 

    Overall I'd say that today was one of the most fascinating learning experiences I've ever had. I absolutely cannot wait to learn more, especially when caring for the reptiles that are in the conservatory. According to Kaeli, that task is yet to come! 

Facts I learned: 

• What you feed an insect can affect if it breeds or not
• Owl butterflies in the conservatory sometimes confuse certain plant species with their host plant, which causes them to lay eggs. That is not what the HMNS wants to happen, or else there would be hundreds of butterflies in the enclosure. It would also not help the eggs, since the caterpillars wouldn't be able to eat the plant anyway.
• When a butterfly gets loose, the USDA has to be alerted for agricultural reasons. 

This is the containment room for the arthropods
that are not on display. I worked with the enclosures 
in the centre and to the right. 

Additional Research:

• What is the role of insects in our ecosystem?
• Insects play an enormous role in our ecosystem. According to National Geographic, "there are about 1.4 billion insects for every human on earth". Insects are an essential part of the food chain, and therefore they are indirectly supporting entire industries. They are eaten by birds, mammals, and fish. They also help in decomposition, which not only releases nutrients that helps plants to grow but also prevents the build up of dead matter or excretion. They help in the pollination of "80% of trees and bushes on the entire planet" (Sawe, 2019), and it is clear why these plants are needed to sustain the earth. Insects also help with seed dispersal by consuming fruit. In addition, some plants only allow pollination by a specific species of insect. And obviously, bees are basically the most important pollinators in the ecosystem, and also contribute to the food industry. Insects are also very nutritional for humans. It is also a part of the culture in many ethnic groups to eat insects- on the Island of Sardinia, people eat 'crying cheese', which is made with maggots. Replacing insects with agricultural livestock can also help in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and help to save grain. Insects also help in biological control- predaceous insects help control diseases or crops. For example, young ladybugs will eat aphids, and aphids eat plants. They can also provide cultural services in terms of tourism. Finally, insects help create medicines that can improve ailments such as tendonitis, and provide products such as silk, dyes, and shellac. 
• How does diet affect mating?
• A study by the University of Edinburgh (2019) found that diet affected the mating habits of burying beetles, "which become sexually mature a few days after reaching adulthood" (Richardson, 2019). The scientists raised males and females separately before pairing them together for mating, and some were fed less than others either before and/or after this pairing. According to the research found, females that were fed less preferred to mate with males that were fed more. Researchers suggest that this was because they "seeked to optimise the health of their offspring by choosing a partner in relatively good condition," (Richardson, 2019). Males that were fed less "spent more time making courtship signals, possibly to avoid physically competing with other males for mates," (Richardson, 2019). Further research is attempting to investigate what impact this could have on offspring. 
• As stated in the article, this could have an enormous impact on how we understand animal behaviour and how climate change's affect on food availability may disrupt the ecosystem.