Bug Hunting!!

My sister is taking an entomology class at her college this month. She kept sending me text messages with pictures of bugs she'd caught for her bug collection, usually accompanied by multiple exclamation points and lots of capital letters. Hunting bugs with nets sounded kind of awesome, so I decided to head down to Greenville, SC this weekend to help her work on her collection. (She has to have 100 specimens identified by the end of the class!)

Walking around the science building at Furman I regretted (as I do with some regularity) not having at least minored in biology. Hannah collected vials and killing jars and giant nets, and we headed out! I'd failed to bring any shoes that weren't flip flops (although I had managed to bring my Smartwool socks) so I borrowed some shoes.


We drove about forty minutes to the Blue Wall Nature Preserve up near the NC/SC border, and near very little else. And we caught bugs!
(...although this approach was not very successful.)


All told we got about twenty-something different insects. And got to enjoy lots of other very cool nature. I wish I actually knew things about insects and could tell you what kind of butterfly will come out of this chrysalis. Right now my money is on the Gulf Fritillary, but I'm really not sure. Look at those gold spots though! So cool. (Did you know 'chrysalis' comes from the Greek for 'gold'? I did not.)
And for some reason I can't not take pictures of mushrooms. I have no idea what these are.
These butterflies are, I think, Eastern Tailed Blues. We caught one for Hannah's collection, so once she identifies it for certain I'll make sure to update this post. They're little guys, and would all cluster on the ground like this and then all fly up into the air en masse, flutter around like a little whirlwind of blue leaves, and then settle back onto the ground.

I'm apparently heading out to the Appalachian Trail in a month. I can't wait to see bugs and mushrooms and things up in the mountains.

I drove back to NC this morning, and thanks to an alert on one of those those overhead electronic signs on 85, was able to hop off the highway just before traffic slowed to a stop and all lanes were closed. (The warning sign just said "incident at mile marker 93.") I added about 40 minutes to my drive by taking back roads, but I would infinitely rather drive a longer distance than sit in traffic. So I drove through Gaffney and a few other little towns, played some Shins CD I found in my car, and enjoyed the gorgeous day.
I had a great weekend, a lovely detour, and summer seems so close I can almost touch it. Six more days of class with my kids. Then it's testing, retesting, grading, and out. Done and done. Hard to believe.