Hunting for water bugs

Last weekend Eli and I went hunting for water bugs. I'd borrowed a dip net, sorting tray and forceps (our 'tools' as Eli called them) from work and off we headed to the landscaping pond on the Griffith University campus. I'd been to the pond with some undergrad students just a few days earlier, so I knew there were plenty of bugs around, and I wanted to catch a good collection so I could do my own little 'show and tell' for Eli's class at school.

Eli at the landscaping pond, ready to begin sampling.

Eli quickly got into the swing of sampling and after watching me with the dip net he wanted to give it a go for himself. It took a little bit of practice, but soon he was pulling in good catches of bugs, not to mention the occassional shrimp and fish!

Eli dip-netting

Eli examines his catch

After every dip Eli was excited to inspect his catch and he even enjoyed looking at the bugs as they wriggled around in the sorting tray. Furthermore, he had a lot more patience with respect to picking the bugs out of the sorting tray than many of the undergrad students had a few days earlier!
  

Eli at the sorting tray

Ultimately we ended up with a really nice collection of bugs - chironomids (midge wrigglers), dragonfly and damselfly nymphs, aquatic bettles and caddisfly larvae - plus a few shrimp to take along to Eli's class. I also whipped up a short slide show matching up the underwater and emerged life stages and the class had a lot of fun trying to figure out what the creatures we'd collected would turn into when they grew up and emerged. I think my slide show was a bit slow for some of them though, because about half way through my presentation Eli put up his hand and asked 'Can we go to the next page now?' - a few of his friends then followed suit - with the exact same question - soon after, but thankfully the teacher then stepped in and told them that they couldn't ask that question any more! It was a tough crowd, but I think they enjoyed it.

Despite his impatience with my presentation, Eli and I had a lot of fun collecting the bugs and sharing them with his class mates. I'm sure we'll be off bug hunting again sometime soon too - not a bad way to spend a lazy Saturday afternoon, although I admit that it is a bit geeky!