The First Annual Louisiana State Arthropod Museum Mad Dog Marathon
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Education connection “To Finish is to Win:” The First Annual Louisiana State Arthropod Museum Mad Dog Marathon Matthew L. Gimmel and Michael L. Ferro common complaint in insect tax- onomy classes is that the required new species, an ecologist conducting a com- Ainsect collection is “too hard” in one the researcher is a taxonomist describing Additionally, the authors have worked with aspect or another; i.e. too many families are students of successive classes in a formal munity inventory, a specialist on pests of a of(MLG: the TAefforts, spring warnings, 2009, LSU) and and help informal from to a good collecting location, or it requires particular crop, an extension agent, or even capacity. We have found that, despite all toorequired, much it’s time difficult to complete. or impossible Despite to travel the annoyingan exterminator. to catastrophic. Misidentifications All researchers in any of a consistently high percentage of students warnings and help from instructors and these fields can have results that range from- instructors, TAs, and veterans of the class, teaching assistants (TAs), some students the course as a result of a low collection working with insects outside of a labora submitgrade. A terrible poorly collections.made insect Some collection even notfail - tory setting should voucher specimens from - dentsultimately at Louisiana fail the course State Arthropod because of Museum a dismal their work. This is an absolute requirement collection.(LSAM), tested The the authors, merit ofboth these graduate complaints stu for responsible research. Specimens must student,only results a lost in opportunity a low grade, to but learn also proper rep in a fun, interesting, and engaging way. This be properly preserved and labeled before techniques,resents a wasted a poor effort use of resourceson the part such of theas beingLike sent most to specialistsentomology for departments, identification ours or confirmation (see Gotelli 2004). andendeavor properly was curated developed in 24 hours, to assess while how lim- graduate students to take a course in insect norpins placed and label in the paper, permanent and useless collection, specimens. and many families of insects could be collected taxonomy,at Louisiana which State Universityhas an insect (LSU) collection requires The latter can be used neither for teaching campus. A desire to engage the faculty and component. Insect Taxonomy is taught in how not to prepare a specimen. studentsiting our incollecting the Department range to of the Entomology, university their only possible value is as an example of- as well as other departments on campus and insect collection accounts for half of the ries of student error: technical errors and thecourse spring grade. of odd-numberedThe insect collection years gradeand the is We have identified two general catego Dog Marathon competition. the public at large, led us to create the Mad time-budgeting errors. Technical errors- based on points for each correctly identified ment.encompass Specimen problems preparation in specimen mistakes and We sought to discover what quality of (and correctly spelled) family, diversity of label preparation and specimen arrange ininsect a single collection, day at a based single onsite. diversity The data and we species within families, proper preservation gatheredspecimen showpreparation, that the could requirements be assembled of a (pinning, alcohol, etc.), proper labeling, and alcohol),involve preserving improper insectspinning improperly (e.g. pinning (e.g. a traditional insect taxonomy course are not, overall presentation of the collection. The- dry-mounting something that should be in collection must also be turned in on time. pointing (e.g. a specimen pointed on the left families.The minimum taxonomic diversity require side),beetle and through poor arrangement the pronotum), of the improper specimen Background:indeed, unreasonable! “Insect Collection Theory” ment for most “A” collections is about 120 One of the most important and funda- in three taxonomy classes (MLF: fall of 2000 mental skills all entomologists must possess [StephenThe authors W. Wilson, have experienceCentral Missouri as students State mistakes(e.g. not spreadingare perhaps a butterfly,the most frustrating,or a beetle with legs cattywampus). Label preparation - is the ability to identify (to some meaningful University], fall of 2003 [Robert W. Sites, as they tend to be epidemic in a collection.- level; the family rank is convenient) and pre University of Missouri, Columbia]; MLG: These mistakes often include oversized 74serve insect specimens. This is true whether Spring 2007 [Christopher E. Carlton, LSU]). fonts, wideAmerican borders, Entomologist lacking locality• Summer informa 2010 mental manipulations” to illustrate the type oftention, erroneous a result of dates, the student’s false label poor information record- docked 10% for being a day late). The title of limited time and a limited geographic area. keeping),(sometimes and through incorrect willful orientation. deceit, but more our event, described herein, commemorates of collection that could be produced given Throughout the semester, countless Thehis heroic Event! efforts. examples of proper pinning, pointing, speci- The entire competition was organized style competition at LSU as a practical in less than one week by the authors (both- to the students. Each student is put through exampleThe authors of what decided kind of to insect stage acollection BioBlitz- graduate students). Competitors provided practicalmen arrangement, exercises to and communicate labeling are precisely shown pins,their ethylown collectingacetate, and equipment, alcohol were or bor do- resources. This had the dual purpose of rowed equipment from LSAM. Label paper, preparation. At all times, proper collections generatingcan be assembled some empirical with limited data on time the timeand participants were six students (and student what is expected for specimen and label- nated by LSAM (< $100 in supplies). The plus promoting the art of insect collecting to collecting and entomology: the two authors, are available to each student for compari theinvolved department in assembling and others a proper on campus. collection, The equivalents) with a keen interest in insect collectionson. How isso a many deep andare profoundable to make mystery such to a rules were simple: Park, and Erich Schoeller. plethora of technical errors in their final Stephanie Gil, Leigh-Anne Lawton, Jong-Seok mistakes as their own (“Yep, you’re right, I - Points were awarded in the following us. Upon review most students accept these tion, must take place in a 24-hour time way: The second category, and the one we 1) Everything,period. from collection to comple pinnedwish to thatfocus beetle on for the the wrong remainder, way…”). is one of order t • 10 points for each correctly identified of either not understanding or ignoring the 2) Specimenscar required). must (Fig. only 1) be collected on family ime-budgeting errors, which are a result LSU’s main campus in Baton Rouge (no • 25 points forfor eacheach series correctly (5 or identified more in- required in constructing a collection. Time- - proper time investment for each of the tasks 3) Only adult hexapods are eligible for species) - submission. • 1dividuals point for of each the sameadditional species/morpho morphospe- budgeting errors inevitably result in not 4) No specimens will be accepted without- cies within a family (at the discretion of having collected enough families, not hav rectlylabel data. for credit. the judges) ing identified specimens already collected,- 5) All family names must be spelled cor tionnot havingon time. properly Late collections arranged typically specimens, occur proper insect drawers for maximum presentation and/or ultimately not submitting the collec 6) Specimenscredit. must be arranged neatly in • 50 points available for overall quality of The person who earned the most points specimens.because the Interestingly, student is scrambling in our experience, at the - lastthis minuteis an area to inlabel, which identify, students or arrange rarely take the - Rules 3–6 parallel those of ENTM 4005. was to be declared the Grand Prize win Rules 1 and 2 were self-imposed “experi ner, but acknowledgments were given for all the blame. The most popular excuses for poor collections stem from time-budgeting errors: “It’s impossible to get 120 families,” “I todon’t identify have amy car specimens,” so I couldn’t “I drive didn’t to think a good it collecting area,” “I didn’t have enough time collection,” and so on. wouldSerendipitously, take so long towe label were and shown arrange what my a dedicated student can do in a short amount of time. In the spring of 2005, one student of Insect Taxonomy, Dmitry “Mad Dog” Chouljenko, performed an extraordinary feat. The day the collection was due, the collected throughout the semester were still properly field-labeled specimens he had - ning,in the pointing, freezer or and in spreading alcohol. That his specimens. afternoon, Workinghe arrived through at the themuseum night, heand made began proper pin - nomically arranged the specimens in his col- lection.locality Byand the identification next morning, labels he presentedand taxo the instructor with an exemplary A+ collec- tion spanning two drawers (though he was Fig. 1. Map of the boundaries set for the Mad Dog Marathon competition. American Entomologist • 75 Volume 56, Number 2 collecting the most families of Hemiptera, During the wee hours of the morning, Coleoptera,