Museum of the Cosmos

Striped bark scorpions (Centruroides vittatus) are easier to find at night with a 395nm blacklight, which causes them to flouresce brightly.

This species is common to the southern central United States and Mexico.

While some members of this genus posess medically-significant venom, the venom of C. vittatus is not notably dangerous to the average human, though it can be quite painful.

These small scorpions (growing just over two inches, or around 70mm, long) spend nights hunting for small invertibrates in and around brush piles, leaf litter, fallen trees and rocky areas. Their habitat preference also makes them a somewhat common sight inside homes and other man-made structures because these buildings provide excellent refuge from extreme temperatures and often contain a few other invertibrates to eat.

Found a nice wolf spider today, possibly Missouri Burrowing Wolf Spider (Geolycosa missouriensis).

I had a visitor today, a carolina mantis (stagmomantis carolina)!

Another session with the sweep net, I found some very interesting species this time!

Some more insects and spiders! I used a sweep net to find many of these in the grass.

Some of the invertibrates I have seen this week in late summer central Oklahoma.

Did you know that sunflower pollen flouresces under a blacklight (395nm)?

Found a luna moth (Actias luna)! This species is found all over the eastern-half of the United States and south-eastern Canada but, are not seen as often as our other large species of moths.

Whenever they are seen, however, they certainly leave an impression!

In Canada, they tend to only go through one generation per year though, down here further south they can go through multiple generations per year.

The host plants for the larvare of this species are mostly trees and include American persimmon (Diospyros virginiana), American sweet gum (Liquidambar styraciflua), Hickory (Carya), Walnut (Juglans), Sumac (Rhus), stonefruits (Prunus), Oak (Quercus), and willow (Salix).

School season has just begun and it won't be long before students are tasked with assembling small insect collections.

In the coming weeks, I'll be going over everything a student, or just an insect enthusiast, would need to know in order to make the best insect collection.

I'll be covering how to build and use various insect traps for collecting specimens, how to identify the insects you collect, how to pin, dry and label them and how to display them.

I found a new plant this afternoon out on county line, a species of marsh fleabane (Pluchea .sp). Visually, it isn't super unique or notable though, the flowers should be pink when they open in the coming weeks.

The most notable thing about this plant is its odor: when you touch the leaves, it smells like sweaty armpits with a hint of musky citrus, like a grapefruit.

It's not a pleasant odor, to be sure but, it is unique.

I'm inclined to say that this is Pluchea odorata but, it could also be Pluchea camphorata. I'll have to check back once it has flowered to be sure.