record attendance at the museum

Yesterday was my father's 60th birthday so some friends came over to celebrate.  The only reason this applies to the Colleyville Dragonfly Museum's blog is because the museum is hosted on the second floor of my parent's house.

As you can imagine...word has gotten around over the past few years that I am a pretend curator of a fake museum...and many* of the guests at the party were interested in seeing this fascinating collection of winged friends.  After cake and ice cream, a whopping five guests (and one curator) raced upstairs to the museum/my bedroom to engage in an entomological learning experience!

In the past, mostly children have visited the museum but this case was interesting because the age range of the guests was between 26 and whatever age Billy's mom is (probably close to 55 or so).  The visitors were genuinely excited and two even said they'd be interested in coming along on a field trip/quest for more specimens.  They asked questions about how I caught the dragonflies, how many species were in America and how they can be preserved (thankfully I either knew or bullshitted the answers...jk).  I was overwhelmed with their reaction to the museum and it was a great feeling to see that the work I've done was enjoyed by someone else as well as myself.

*= at least three were interested, two were possible tag-alongs

new direction

Well...my lifelong dream of moving to China to publish one blog post about dragonflies has been completed and now that that's out of the way I have relocated back to America.  All seriousness aside, though I did not stay the intended duration of my trip in China I do not consider it a failure.  While the trip didn't turn out how I had wanted it to (my blog about my China experience), I learned a lot of things I wouldn't have had the opportunity to learn were I stateside.  As well...obviously, I saw some badass new dragonflies!!

Coming back home felt somewhat like a setback in many ways and I knew I didn't want to be where I was.  Though it's not necessarily the most appealing form of motivation, being extremely frustrated with your situation can do the trick sometimes.

China power!

So I'm still in China, still chugging away, always on the lookout for the next big dfly, the next superstar of the world.  Here are some candidates I've come across in the past few months.

Female Acisoma panorpoides (Asian pintail).

mora-borium

I know I said the museum was not accepting specimens due to my impending departure, but it turns out the lifestyle I've designed for myself as a hunter is too deep in my blood to obey the bureaucracy.  I broke the code; I captured a handful of dflies since I wrote about the moratorium.  I'm sorry but I will not apologize for this.

In the post describing the stoppage of specimen acquisition I forgot to mention a caveat stating "rare and unprecedented specimens will be admitted."  This was a standard clause I asked my lawyers to tell me to put in the blog even though I didn't intend to use it (I figured I'd be too busy getting ready for the move to hunt).  However, I have admitted multiple specimens and not all the specimens I have recently brought to the museum have fallen under either exceptional category.  Another dictum of recalcitrance...

summer break

Hi all.  Well, spring is here and summer is next.  You know what that means!  Neither do I, but I have other news anyway:  I am moving to China at the end of June.  This means a lot for the Colleyville Dragonfly Museum.  As some may know, the museum is located in the bedroom of my parent's house.  My parents have recently informed me that they are going to take over my room while I am gone.  Thus...admission to the museum will be temporarily suspended to the general public.  Case-by-case appeals for entry can be made by contacting me via a note on this blog entry.

Expansion of the museum will also be halted while I am away.  I realized today while walking that I have too much work to do before I leave for China and I cannot keep accumulating specimens--even the specimens I already have have not received enough care and attention; there are literally over 100 specimens sitting in shoeboxes on the ground because I have nowhere to put them right now.

I'm sorry for this distressing news.  Blog entries will probably continue as I try to share pictures and information about our winged friends.  My stomach has just informed me that I must eat or I will die, so this entry is going to be cut short.  Goodbye for now.

observations of my terminal influence

Thanks for stopping by.  A short story if I might relate it to you.  My half twin brother Andrew and I went out for a walk the other day to have a dfly catching battle.  This battle was to determine who would be the first to catch a dragonfly by hand.  Well, I will admit right now that I got beat, and by default Andrew won, since he was the only other person playing.  I'm not really ashamed.

windy ramblings

The weather here in Colleyville has been up and down the past week.  For me this has been discouraging as I cannot go outside when the temperature drops below 60 degrees Farenheit due to a rare congenital condition called Fuckcoldweather.  I am not sure if the vast temperature fluctuations are confusing our little dragonfly buddies about when to emerge, but I do know that another component of weather, wind, could be doing us all harm.

As stated in a previous blog entry, after a dragonfly emerges and its wings harden, it becomes a juvenile.  These juveniles are not very strong fliers and often if you walk by a pond and startle one it may fly off before it really feels comfortable.  An unsuccessful first flight for a dragonfly can do tremendous damage to its self-esteem.  Doing something for the first time and feeling so awkward is something I am intimately familiar with so I can relate totally--how humiliating is it when you come out of the water for the first time, look around and puff up your wings, only to be scared by an approaching giant.  What do you do??  Think fast--use those new wing things!!  Bzz...bzzz.  But, your wings don't even make sounds, that was just for emphasis, to make it seem like flying.  Before you even know what your body is doing you are in the air, basically hang-gliding; you take off, get a little air and then go in the general direction of the wind and hope for a safe landing.  What a welcome to the terrestrial and aerial world....

ecstatic beginnings

The time has come here in Northeast Tarrant County!!  As mentioned in my previous two postings (which in extreme excitement I sent from my phone), specific Zygopterans and Epithecans have taken to the air at the Colleyville Nature Center.

I began my walk this morning with hopes of seeing some dragonflies but I made sure not to get too excited, as my fragile personality easily becomes fragmented.  Walking by sections of the park I recalled years past and dragonflies the dragonflies of yore...could today be the day??  ...No, Brian, calm down, be patient.  I say this to myself a lot.  So I kept sauntering along, enjoying the sights of many other insects that I haven't seen in a while.  I saw a six-spotted tiger beetle (species Cincindela sexguttata) along my way to the pond's edge, as well as some butterflies or moths (who cares...order Lepidoptera) and midges (suborder Nemotocera).  The midges got me excited--midges are aquatic insects just like dragonflies.  In fact, midges often fall prey to the mandibles of our beloved dragonflies.  If only...

I think you can tell where this is headed.  If not, you're retarded, because I already told you in the first paragraph.

what's Latin for tragedy...

Just kidding, I don't care.  Natural selection takes care of a lot of our dragonfly friends, as seen in the following photographs.  Sometimes I wish I would've been disposed of earlier by nature, however, I was born in the 20th century with a lion roaring in the background.  Anyway, someone's loss is our benefit, and these pictures will help us bridge the gap between the very brief period in which a dragonfly lives underwater and in which it takes to the air.

Uh oh...complications emerging!!

Epitheca princeps

The prince baskettail (Epitheca princeps) has always been a very enchanting dragonfly to me.  When I first began collecting, this species seemed so majestic and elusive.  Massive green eyes (when living) and an abdomen that curls upward and outward like the letter "j" when this dragonfly is hanging from a tree branch, I hardly ever saw them anywhere within reach; they were always jetting high overhead and pinching insects from the air or patrolling territories of water, towering above of the other species.

A dorsal scan of an Epitheca princeps from the CDM.

new season ahead

Here is a photo from last year, a reminder of what is coming in 2011.  Species of the genus Epitheca are usually the first dragonflies to start showing up around here.  They generally begin emerging in mid-March and persist maybe through August.

This fine specimen, an unidentified baskettail (Epitheca sp.), was placed in a vial of acetone moments after capture.  Usually when we immediately immerse a specimen in the field it is so the specimen won't damage itself, or to preserve its ephemeral developmental state.

the Colleyville Dragonfly Museum blog begins

Hello, and welcome to our blog.

My name is Brian and I am the curator and media specialist for the Colleyville Dragonfly Museum.  The Colleyville Dragonfly Museum, hereafter referred to as CDM, is an non-profit housing assistance program for dragonflies located in Tarrant County.  We relocate the insects to our facility (my parents' house) and display them for whoever happens to wander in the house.

This blog will share with you all of our recent acquisitions, events, news and any other interesting information.

So, welcome aboard...we're in for the ride of your stupid fucking life.