Well, nearly the end of today
So far – I got absolutely soaking cycling in to work, I’ve had one pupal death and three larval deaths over the weekend but I have three adults which are now pinned (mosquitoes ) , a meeting on the databasing system, visitors, and several loans to prepare….. on my desk i have a load on new flies that a colleague has given me from his garden as well as some from Cameroon that a student dropped off (albeit he has bugs confused with flies….)
But the Tajiks are at the London School to study some techniques so at least i can relax. The mini-bus went back today and no one has screamed at me because of the damage…..We took the Tajiks to a Salsa club on Friday night to show them some of London and it was their first night club!! and then on Saturday (and Sunday and Monday) we were in to monitor the mosquito larvae that are developing in one of the labs in the tower. We have a little production line. Bowls at the front for the very small larvae, once the develop to about the 4th in-star stage (just before they pupate) we separate them out into their own breeding tubes. Then when they pupate we remove the skin and store in alcohol, to which we will add the pupal skin when the adult emerges. Once the adult has emerged we have to leave it for 24hours to let the genitalia rotate into place . It’s all going well.
We have a new visitor in Diptera today from Spain who will be with us for a month. It is all becoming a rush at the moment as we are beginning to shut down the hatches to the collection in preparation for the move. It feels like this ominous event looming towards us…..
So far – I got absolutely soaking cycling in to work, I’ve had one pupal death and three larval deaths over the weekend but I have three adults which are now pinned (mosquitoes ) , a meeting on the databasing system, visitors, and several loans to prepare….. on my desk i have a load on new flies that a colleague has given me from his garden as well as some from Cameroon that a student dropped off (albeit he has bugs confused with flies….)
But the Tajiks are at the London School to study some techniques so at least i can relax. The mini-bus went back today and no one has screamed at me because of the damage…..We took the Tajiks to a Salsa club on Friday night to show them some of London and it was their first night club!! and then on Saturday (and Sunday and Monday) we were in to monitor the mosquito larvae that are developing in one of the labs in the tower. We have a little production line. Bowls at the front for the very small larvae, once the develop to about the 4th in-star stage (just before they pupate) we separate them out into their own breeding tubes. Then when they pupate we remove the skin and store in alcohol, to which we will add the pupal skin when the adult emerges. Once the adult has emerged we have to leave it for 24hours to let the genitalia rotate into place . It’s all going well.
We have a new visitor in Diptera today from Spain who will be with us for a month. It is all becoming a rush at the moment as we are beginning to shut down the hatches to the collection in preparation for the move. It feels like this ominous event looming towards us…..
