By Dr. John Morse, Clemson University.
Here are some resources you will be able to use after you have learned to recognize diagnostic characters, thanks to this website (beginning with most recent): Merritt, R.W., K.W. Cummins, and M.B. Berg. (2019) An Introduction to the Aquatic Insects of North America, 5th edition. Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, Dubuque, Iowa. 1300 pp. [Covers general ecology and identification of North American aquatic insects to the level of genus; also includes tables for habitat, habit, feeding behaviors, general distribution, and tolerance values for each genus, with comprehensive bibliography.] NOTE: This volume is scheduled to be published next month, possibly before our launch date, but certainly very soon. Morse, J.C., W.P. McCafferty, B.P. Stark, & L.M. Jacobus. (2017) Larvae of the Southeastern USA Mayfly, Stonefly, and Caddisfly Species (Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera). Biota of South Carolina, volume 9. Technical Bulletin 1109, PSA Publishing, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina. 482 pp. [Covers identification of southeastern USA mayfly, stonefly, and caddisfly larvae to level of genus and species.] Thorp, J.H., and D.C. Rogers. (2016) Thorp and Covich's Freshwater Invertebrates--Volume II: Keys to Nearctic Fauna. Elsevier, Boston, Massachusetts (etc.). 740 pp. [Covers identification of freshwater invertebrates (Protozoa and 14 invertebrate phyla) for North America, sometimes to level of genus, insects to level of family only.] Triplehorn, C.A., and N.F. Johnson. (2005) Borror and DeLong's Introduction to the Study of Insects, 7th edition. Thomson Brooks/Cole, Belmont, California (etc.). 864 pp. https://www.worldcat.org/title/borror-and-delongs-introduction-to-the-study-of-insects/oclc/55793895 [Covers general ecology and identification of North American insect families for aquatic and terrestrial adults.] Bouchard, R.W., Jr. (2004) Guide to Aquatic Invertebrates of the Upper Midwest. Regents of the University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota. 207 pp. https://midge.cfans.umn.edu/midwest-guide [Covers identification of freshwater invertebrates of the Upper Midwest, USA, to family level; also includes feeding behaviors, tolerance values, and primary habitat preferences.] Voshell, J.R., Jr. (2002) A Guide to Common Freshwater Invertebrates of North America. McDonald & Woodward Publishing Company, Blacksburg, Virginia. 442 pp. https://www.worldcat.org/title/guide-to-common-freshwater-invertebrates-of-north-america/oclc/48966604 [Covers general ecology and identification of 100 most-common freshwater invertebrate groups for North America to level of invertebrate phyla and insect families.] Macroinvertebrates.org featured in Spring 19 National Water Quality Monitoring Council's Newsletter.Following our site training workshop at the 2019 Annual National Water Quality Monitoring Conference in Denver with Tara Munez, Stroud Water Research Institute, the site was also featured in the quarterly National Water Quality Monitoring Council quarterly newsletter. We're thrilled to receive the coverage and hope to reach a broader audience of users. https://acwi.gov/monitoring/newsletter/national-monitoring-news_spring2019.pdf
This video was shared with us, while not deemed appropriate for the site...it is a humorous take on the life"style" of a dragonfly with a self-consciously anthropomorphic, locker room humour.
by Chelsea Cui, undergraduate research assistant, CMU Hi, it’s Chelsea again! This spring I have been working with Jaclyn, our new designer, on a revision of the Order level key. Based on our previous usability test results, this time we decided to focus on the improvement of interactivity and element affordance. We wondered if making the key clickable and having paths highlight would make the key easier to follow. Here’s Jaclyn’s rough prototype: Since the new key has more interactive features, it requires more customized HTML and JavaScript components. To implement the design, I first tried to use SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) techniques that I learned from my web development class to draw the key within HTML manually, but the outcome did not resemble the design well since it is hard to control the exact location of the endpoints of the lines.
In order to find a better solution, I did some research and found that Adobe XD, the design tool used by Jaclyn, can export graphic designs to SVG images. By loading the SVG image in a browser, I was able to get the code version of the design and move it to the html file. However, since all components in the image, including lines, dots, and rectangles, are represented as separate vectors in the code and there is no meaningful order, it is necessary to label all the components with meaningful names and group them into different classes before further implementing the JavaScript part. At this point, I have added all the popup windows and labeled most order pictures, but I will not be in CMU during the summer, so this project is on hold. For future developers, I would suggest to follow these steps:
by Pat McShea, Program Officer: Education, Carnegie Museum of Natural History This spring’s Creek Connections Student Research Symposium at Allegheny College was a good showcase for Learning to See, Seeing to Learn. The April 5 event drew students from more than twenty high schools and middle schools in western Pennsylvania and western New York to the Campus Center building of the Meadville college for a five-hour program of research presentations, interactive displays, focus group activities, and an awards ceremony. (See: https://sites.allegheny.edu/creekconnections/ )
As an educator representing Carnegie Museum of Natural History, I spent the day promoting the macroinvertebrates website at a table that was part of a larger resource fair in the Campus Center lobby. The table displayed two iPads for visitors to explore the site, a set of macros embedded in Lucite cubes, a traditional Riker mount of pond macros, a field microscope, and a stack of promotional postcards. During the course of the symposium I spoke with, and handed-out postcards to approximately 100 people, a mix of middle school and high school students presenting their projects, the teachers of those students, Allegheny College students and faculty, and representatives of other organizations participating in the symposium, including the University of Pittsburgh’s Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology, French Creek Valley Conservancy, PA Lake Management Society, PA Bureau of Forestry (Department of Conservation and Natural Resources), and the Crawford County Conservation District. Some table visitors were particularly impressed by set-ups on the paired iPads -- one screen fully zoomed-in on the abstract art-like image on the “setal fan on a proleg” of a net-spinning caddisfly, the other featuring a whole-body image of the tiny beast. by Jamie Dorst, REU, CMU Human-Computer Interaction Institute Recently, I've been working on more order level sheets since the Trichoptera order level sheet was such a hit at the November Stroud training. I created two more: one for Plecoptera and one for Ephemeroptera. It was a fun challenge trying to create these layouts, since each order varied in terms of number and size of specimens and amount of copy text. I also revised the initial version of the Trichoptera sheet, and put the insects on a gray background so they look better. Here are the latest versions! They'll be available for download soon on the Resources page. by Helen Schlimm, Community Science Specialist, Alliance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring (ALLARM) Macroinvertebrate samples are a great learning tool for all ages!
Recently, the Alliance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring (ALLARM) at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA, used CMU’s lucite macro samples and the macroinvertebrates.org website for two awesome educational experiences. ALLARM taught a short course on PA Streams at a local library with the Institute for Lifelong Learning program. The macro samples were the highlight of the final class (stream health 101), where participants identified the bugs under a microscope and used the site on the screen to see high quality pictures and make better determinations. People were amazed to see the diversity of bugs that could be found in their streams! The macro samples were a big hit at our second event, the finale of the Conodoguinet Creek Snapshot monitoring series. Volunteers throughout the Conodoguinet watershed in Cumberland County sampled water quality and came to ALLARM’s space to test their water and engage in hands-on watershed education activities. The macroinvertebrates and microscopes featured prominently, and participants of all ages enjoyed identifying the macros and learning about the role they play in watershed health. The samples and the website are fantastic tools for community engagement and education, and everyone had lots of fun exploring them as well! byAndrea Kautz and Dan Kozel, Powdermill Nature Reserve Dan Kozel of Powdermill Nature Reserve has worked over many months to perfect a procedure to cast macroinvertebrates in acrylic blocks for use in the classroom. These blocks are a great way to transport and distribute normally very fragile aquatic insect specimens without destroying them. It also helps learners see the real-life scale of these insects. They can be put under microscopes to be viewed from all angles and are a great tool to use in training exercises. Dan was able, through lots of experimentation, to figure out a method for casting these delicate insects in acrylic while avoiding the common issues like bubbles and shriveling. You can download his instructions (PDF) for creating them here:
Now we have several complete training sets of macros that can be used with a wide variety of audiences in conjunction with macroinvertebrates.org. A big thanks to Dan for all of his hard work!
by Chelsea Cui, CMU undergraduate researcher Hi, I'm Chelsea, a third-year undergraduate in Information Systems with a double major in Statistics and Machine Learning. I started on the macroinvertebrates.org project last fall because I was interested in building platform that assists people with online learning. Since I started, I have worked on a few different parts of the project, including log file analysis and development of the mobile app. Right now, I'm working with Jamie to build an interactive Order level key.
We want something to help new users who don't know the insects very well. I took the initial layout by Jamie and made clickable versions. With HTML and CSS, I added hyperlink sections to the couplets in the key, and also implemented pop-up windows on each of them to show the corresponding diagnostic characters. This version is just a quick prototype. I am doing usability tests right now to get feedback before making the final design. In the first round of tests, I found out that our current key design doesn’t look interactive enough to many users. Users may not think the key is clickable because the buttons are kind of simple and plain. For the next step, I’m planning to focus on the interactive design and create several different versions of the key to do more usability tests. The initial version of this key is live on the new site now. Check it out here! (http://macroinvertebrates.org/key). by Jessica Roberts, Postdoctoral Researcher, CMU HCII At long last, we are pleased to announce the soft launch of macroinvertebrates.org! The alpha site we have been developing for the past two years is finally ready. In addition to the expansion of the collection to 150 insects in nine orders, we have added a ton of exciting features, including an interactive order level key, a searchable glossary, annotated illustrations, and photos and videos of adult and larval specimens. Check out this draft of our site demo video showing off all the new features: We are still polishing a few features (and the video), but we are excited to be on the home stretch of this exciting project!
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