Louisiana State Arthropod Museum (LSAM) Returns

The Louisiana State Arthropod Museum returned this month for another visit.  Students and museum staff make the yearly trip and upon their arrival at the Painted Pony Resort is transformed into a field station for the duration of their visit.  Collecting equipment is unloaded, processing stations created in the garage, and microscope stations set up in the computer room.  After dinner and an evening introductory lecture on the high desert of New Mexico everyone relaxes in the hot tub or heated pool after the long drive then begin preparations for collecting projects.  The days are filled with collecting at various locations from the valley floor up to elevations over 9000' in the high country.  While a series of flight intercept traps are set up around the mountain range to sample the local insect populations.  Favorite collecting locations are visited and repeat samples collected.  Each evening students and staff return and a communal dinner is prepared.  Every day a different person is responsible for preparing dinner for the group which creates a series of international meals since students and staff come from around the world to study at the museum.  After dinner samples are processed and then the group relaxes with a movie, more swimming, and black light stations set up around the estate are monitored.  Of course with 750 acres the Painted Pony Resort and adjoining public lands are also used for collecting and students could be found out on the landscape with nets throughout their visit.

Here are several images by Mike Ferro of LSAMs 2014 visit to the Painted Pony Resort.  Additional images from the 2014 LSAM collecting trip may be found at:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/12666884@N00/sets
https://www.flickr.com/photos/98218272@N05/14669413607/
https://plus.google.com/photos/108279953306115325580/albums/6047139897560460737?banner=pwa

The first evenings lecture

The arrival and unloading

Collecting in the high desert

Collecting at the light trap

Processing samples in the garage

Microscope station in the computer room

Relaxing after a day of field work

Collecting from an ephemeral pool next to the estate

Entomology at the Painted Pony Resort

The members of Louisiana State Arthropod Museum have returned for another year of collecting in the Chiricahua Mountains and are in residence at the Painted Pony Resort.  The Coronado National Forest is reopening and post fire collecting should provide an estimate on the effects of fire on insect populations within the Chiricahua Mountains.  A video from last years collecting trip has been posted by SpongyMesophyll on YouTube and is embedded below.  The video shows the progression from locating and collecting to curating specimens.  The light trapping scenes are spectacular with thousands of insects attracted to both mercury vapor lamps and black lights.

LSAM's visit the Painted Pony Resort

About a dozen members from the Louisiana State Arthropod Museum (LSAM) spent 10 days at PPR collecting and identifying insects. They were out in the Chiricahuas during the day setting traps and collecting around the sky islands. In the evenings after dinner the light traps were set up and more collecting took place long into the night since different species would arrive at the lights at different times. The light traps brought in thousands of insects and the goal of 10,000 beetles was easily met. Here are links to some of their photos.

Black light trap

Mercury vapor light trap