Field Collecting

Collecting in the Oetztal Alps (Austria) on a rainy day.

If you or a student (or a classroom of students) want to learn from an old-school natural historian and taxonomist about how he views the plant-insect world, send me a note.  Obviously I focus on aphids (and psyllids) and the plants they are likely to feed on.

But with an ecological bent in my thinking, I like to get out and get a sense of a place, the plants, other animals, and along the way collect some samples.  I enjoy teaching people in the field about plants, insects, and collecting.

Slide Mounting

I’ve been making slide preparations of aphids, whiteflies, psyllids, and other small arthropods for 30 years.  That’s a total of, I don’t know, at least 12,000 slides.  It takes a lot of practice to get good at slide making, but with good training a person can learn it in just a few weeks (assuming you have steady hands!).

Aphthargelia rumbleboredomia oviparous female ex Symphoricarpos, cleared and mounted in Canada balsam.