How to attract an entomologist : Photo Synthesis

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Ted Kinsman is a scientific photographer that specializes in creating images for books, magazines, and television. His particular areas of interest are in x-ray radiography, high-speed photography, Scanning electron microscopy, and time-lapse cinematography. His work has appeared in numerous books and magazines ranging from Discover Magazine to Forbes. Recently his work has appeared on Gray's Anatomy and CSI New York. In addition to running www.sciencephotography.com Kinsman also teaches advanced placement physics at Brighton High School in Rochester, NY, he also teaches advanced macro-photography at Rochester Institute of Technology.

B.N. (Bobbie) Sullivan has a strong affinity for the sea and everything in it. She first learned to dive in 1970 and has since logged thousands of dives. A wish to document the marine life she encountered prompted her to learn underwater photography more than 20 years ago. More recently, she began to write about the marine life she has photographed. A research psychologist by profession, she approaches her subject matter with the mindset of a scientist, but targets her writing to a general readership in whom she hopes to foster an appreciation for the ocean and its inhabitants.

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B Jefferson Bolender is Training Coordinator of the State of Arizona's program for disability awareness and assistive technology. Through her travels she always has a camera at hand to photograph everything from people to technology and nature. As a teacher of elementary education, special education and art, her interests include a wide array of subject matter with an emphasis on documentation with an artist's eye.

See more of her work in her photo stream on Flickr and the website atarizona.com.

Steve Jurvetson enjoys rocketry and photography and especially the pursuit of both in the Black Rock Desert. Some action photos and video links can be found here.

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Alex Wild is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he works on the molecular phylogenetics of various groups of insects. He is also a part-time photographer whose images appear in such venues as Ranger Rick, Smithsonian, BBC Wildlife, and even ScienceBlogs.

Alex's galleries are viewable at www.alexanderwild.com, and he normally blogs at Myrmecos Blog.

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Into entomology? Check out Insects.org

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How to attract an entomologist

Category: Insects • Light • Photography
Posted on: May 1, 2009 10:15 AM, by Alex Wild

Step 1. Locate a suitable patch of forest, field, or desert.

Step 2. Wait for a warm, moonless summer night.
Step 3. Using a long extension cord, plug in a blacklight. Or even better, a mercury-vapor lamp.
Step 4. Sit back and watch your prey arrive.*

Warm night.jpg

*disclaimer. This technique works generally for most entomologists, but if your needs are more specific, you will wish to employ more specialized methods. Forensic entomologists prefer roadkill, for example.

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Comments

And then there are those that study dung beetles...

Posted by: James C. Trager | May 1, 2009 12:27 PM

I thought that all you had to do to attract an entomologist was to rub your legs together.

Posted by: Romeo Vitelli | May 1, 2009 1:10 PM

Loved this post! Catching an entomologists sounds both fun and easy. Must try it sometime. :)

Romeo - very very funny!

Posted by: ctenotrish | May 1, 2009 5:35 PM

Ab fab, Alex! (And the cicindelid is really gorgeous, BTW!)

Posted by: Julie Stahlhut | May 1, 2009 10:43 PM

this doesn't work for me... i'm more of a tree beater

Posted by: ihateaphids | May 1, 2009 11:01 PM

catching them is the easy part. It is the taping of the kill jar to the nose that takes a bit of skill..

Posted by: rodney dyer | May 2, 2009 5:59 AM

Thanks for a wonderful summer vacation idea!

Must do this, in addition to scoping protists and hanging out around mycologists... I really need to 'grow up' or something... =D
(hey, there's a world outside the lab sometimes!)

Posted by: Psi Wavefunction | May 4, 2009 11:58 AM

Some of them really love strange places like caves :)

Posted by: Atila | May 4, 2009 9:00 PM

Hah. The title alone does it for me :) Very Gary Larson-esque, just had to comment. Lacks some macro photos of entomologists though ;)

Posted by: Henrik Erlandsson | May 6, 2009 11:28 PM

Specialists on pollinators are attracted to flowers. They leave the roadkill and blacklights to others.

Posted by: B. Moisset | May 8, 2009 4:26 PM

i see an orb!

Posted by: alex | May 8, 2009 5:20 PM

hahaha
good one..

but u should know entomologists shld be attracted to the tropics yah? I am assumingly there's alot more insect biodiversity here..

Posted by: Kevin | May 9, 2009 9:00 PM

Herrik nailed it with the Gary Larson reference. I bet your blog attracts a lot of entomologists too. I'm like a moth buzzing around a candle flame between this blog, your blog, Flickr, and bugguide.net... And I'm not even an entomologist!

Posted by: Glen | May 15, 2009 2:49 PM

Don't forget the mashed fermenting peaches mixed with beer.

Posted by: Monado | May 20, 2009 10:04 AM