Sunday, September 21, 2008

An Obsession for Caddisflies.

My whole life, I have been interested in insects. The joke is I was born into entomology. My mother was running around with an butterfly net while she was pregnant with me. From early childhood I was collecting insects, laying pit traps in the garden, setting out lights to attract moths. My dad and I would go out to a local pond and catch crepuscular dragonflies by twilight.

During my middle school and high school years I forgot about this passion. I had other worries, other interests. During my undergraduate education, I fell back into love with biology, entomology, and found a new love in aquatic insects. I was already halfway to completing my degree in aquatic biology when I realized how much I loved those bugs! Thankfully it was not too late for me. After a summer working under an aquatic entomologist, I knew I had found my lifelong passion in caddisflies. I am now a graduate student researching what I love. Caddisflies have become my obsession, and along with biology, evolution, freshwater ecology, invertebratology, entomology and other random science nerdery, this will be the focus of my blog. Its outreach on my part, to show the world what I love and why I love it. Its also an attempt to journal my research and my progress as a student of biology.

Next time: An introduction to Trichopterology.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Okay, are you blaming me or thanking me for the obsession? I got pretty good at chasing after my beloved lepodoptera, even in my enlarged condition. Mom