The Beast and the Bug: Welcome to Texas

The old agricultural building (early 1900s).

As people may or may not know, I am spending the summer doing entomological research at Texas A&M University. In short, I will be studying the effects of different foods on fruit fly larvae. So who is going to be cooking for the little maggots? Me. I spent last summer cooking for humans; this time I will be preparing dishes for Drosophila melanogaster.

Over this past year I have found an unexpected love with the Hymenoptera. While that word may inspire you to chant “Imhotep” in a crazed monotone (anybody else enjoy Brendan Fraser’s performance in The Mummy?), it is actually a group of insects including ants, wasps, and bees.

Working with these insects is both interesting and useful. Here in Texas, red imported fire ants are problematic (or alternatively check out raspberry crazy ants). Studying certain wasps provides ways of eliminating those feisty critters, improving the quality of life. But it’s not just about pest control; bees are incredible pollinators and need to be studied as well. While honeybees visit many diverse plant species, some crops would benefit from other types of bees specializing only on a particular plant. 

When touring the ecology labs earlier this week, several of my fellow researchers and I found a large spider running through the hallway. We weren’t sure whether it was an escaped experiment or simply an intruder to step on. A professor picked it up, mumbled something about Lycosidae (an esoteric way of saying it was a wolf spider), and left it to continue roaming the corridors as we exited the building. Even though we will never know for sure, I’d like to think it was a rogue… maybe, perhaps, someone is trying to recreate the origin of Spiderman?

Now, to me, heaven is a herd of wildebeest (minus the constant running from predators). Does that make The Lion King some sort of sacred text? Probably not. But it does explain why I spend so much time reading National Geographic.