Processing Malaise Traps from Schools across Canada

The Collections team has worked hard the past 2 weeks sorting and preparing samples collected from schools around the country for this fall’s School Malaise Trap Program. Our first step was to count the specimens in each sample bottle and our grand total from 59 schools was 61,052 specimens! Continue reading “Processing Malaise Traps from Schools across Canada”

Barcoding Canada – starting with its National Parks

Our National Parks are outstanding representatives of natural landscapes that are established to protect habitats, wildlife, and ecosystem diversity – which may be unique to specific natural regions across Canada. Therefore it is only fitting that when BIO set out to ‘barcode our country’s backyard’, collecting from Canadian National Parks was on top of the list. As of October 2014, BIO has sampled 43 of 45 of Canada’s National Parks. Continue reading “Barcoding Canada – starting with its National Parks”

Awesome Arthropods and Alpine Adventures

Hello faithful readers, and welcome to my third blog post. We arrived in E.C. Manning Provincial Park, and boy is it a nice place. The friendly park staff set us up right by the Manning Park Lodge, so we have access to the necessities as well as swimming facilities and a game area. We’re being spoiled! Continue reading “Awesome Arthropods and Alpine Adventures”

Site dismantling, mating Meloidae and Manitobans

Hello faithful readers, and welcome to another exciting addition of my BIObus blog! Today I will be going over the take-down of our Grasslands sites (complete, of course, with a storm, our meeting with a group of students from Manitoba, and), a really cool beetle. Continue reading “Site dismantling, mating Meloidae and Manitobans”

Hellfire, Hail, and hello Saskatchewan!

Hey everybody, I’m Graham and I’m a part of the BIObus team going to the west coast of Canada. This is my second trip on the bus, and I’m hoping it will be just as amazing as last year! It’s nice to be back on my mobile home away from home out in the field collecting bugs and admiring the amazing Canadian scenery. This is our second day in Grasslands National Park, and it has been pretty eventful. Continue reading “Hellfire, Hail, and hello Saskatchewan!”