Echinacea Field Log

Listen up, Echinacea fans!

I've now finished making slides and taking photos of the first 68 insect visitors--only 107 left to go.

Here are some photos of the process:

1) Here is an insect carrying LOADS of pollen (haha! get it?) which I am about to transfer onto a small agar cube on a microscope slide.

2) I heat the slide, complete with pollen-covered agar cube and cover slip, on a hotplate. Next I throw the completed, labeled slide under the microscope camera and take photos like these:

3) I've pinned each specimen with a unique ID code that corresponds to its vial ID number.

The most common genera near as I can tell from the reference collection are...

Male Melissodes sp.

And Ceratina sp.

Please leave questions or comments and I'll do my best to respond!

-Amanda