Class

Jan 8 - 9
As we began our second day of class, we went to the library to watch CSI: sex, lies, and larvae. Wow, this episode had a lot to talk about; it had its accuracies and its inaccuracies. Besides the factual information, the episode was within its first season, and it was somewhat overly dramatic in the acting. However, assessing the accuracies of the insect information I learned new things about insects and their applications that I did not know prior to the film. First, insects can be used in crime scenes and investigations to determine how long the corpse has been deceased. Investigators use a technique called linear regression to map the life cycle's of insects to incorporate that into the time of death. The application of insects and science into real life events is fascinating; besides insects being evolutionary successful creatures, we humans find them useful in numerous aspects with just this sole one technique. If people would further know the application and background information on insects it would really change the public perspective on these misconstrued victims. I know from personal experience that with just this first week of class I want to dig further and know more about these mysterious creatures than I thought possible. Another weird, but true fact I learned from the CSI episode was that forensics probably arose from the story of a man using his shovel in some distant country to determine which man in the village killed the girl. So from the beginning, someone was guilty of murdering this girl within the village, and all the men pleaded innocent. Well one innovative, early "scientist" thought for every man to hold his shovel out, and whichever shovel attracted flies that man was guilty of the homicide. Flies can detect microscopic pieces of flesh and blood that humans cannot see or detect. On the other hand, the inaccuracies are just as prevalent. One of the main characters is supposed to be sort of an entomologist, at least in respect to the crime scene investigations. He referenced the life cycle of the flies within the film, but completely skipped a phase of their cycle: the pupa(e) stage. Flies go through complete metamorphosis, which has four stages within their life. Additionally, the same character also constructed an inaccurate experiment. He deduced that the deceased female has been dead for five days using linear regression, but then later he replicates the death scene using a wrapped pig to determine its linear regression. One, the man stated previously in the film that species of flies found within the woman were found in urban areas only. While doing the experiment with the pig, he placed the pig in an abandoned rural area. Well for one the two species of flies would evidently be different then. This causes two problems: different species means different life cycles and different linear regression times; thus different times of death. Other than that large inaccuracy the film was quite entertaining compared to a regular class room setting. This class is becoming quite interesting. Following the film, our class went out by one of our dorm's lakes to look for any insects. First, we began by searching through cattails for larvae of the cattail moth that commonly inhabits our campus. These larvae are hard to find because they are so small and a pale yellow color. They hide deep within the cattail flower, and we had to pull off the spores of the cattail to find these specimens. Soon after searching for these larvae, a classmate found a couple of preying mantis nests. These nests consisted of their eggs, which will hatch in the warmth to produce preying mantis nymphs that will undergo gradual metamorphosis. Lastly, our professor allowed us to walk around and search for moth pupae within the trees. He told us that some moths/pupae have already emerged and will be within hollow trees to overwinter. We found several cocoons dangling from the trees. Specifically, one cocoon was empty, but had an exoskeleton of the larva within it. This means that this moth has already emerged and began its reproductive state. Our second day of class turned out to be quite different because you'll never know what interesting things you'll find if you look close enough. Following this day of class, our Thursday class now seems ordinary. We went to the classroom to discuss the reading which we had to complete, and then we proceeded to go outside to collect more insects. This time the insect collection was real interesting. We went into the eco scape forest to search for any kind of insect we could find in any such place like within the trees, under the logs, under the leaf litter, or just about anywhere if you look closely enough. Strangely, I found a parasitized caterpillar pupa on a leaf, but it was unidentifiable. Then after finding that, I found a pine cone with some pupa inside, and then under a rotting log I found a couple of creatures: spiders, termites, and earwigs all squirming and crawling their way through the crevices of the wood. Lastly, I found some large beetles burrowed within another rotting log.

These beetles are pretty large, and I've noticed that the male beetle has a small black horn protruding from his head. It was great to go out and find more insects, and the part that is amazing is that if you just look hard enough and close enough you would be amazed by what all the natural world has to offer.