Grand Bug Hunt
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Get all your insect hunting gear together (container, identification book, and magnifying glass) and go on an adventure! This tour takes you to insect habitats located just outside the OHIO Museum Complex at The Ridges. Since insects comprise the largest groups of animals on Earth (~1 million species, which is about ½ of all known living species), we cannot possibly include them all on this hunt. Please take and share insect photos from your hunt on Twitter or Instagram, tag #OHIOinsects, and we will help identify them!
The Grand Bug Tour was developed by OHIO Honors Student Sarah Romer and Dr. Bekka Brodie, in collaboration with Dr. Nancy J. Stevens and the mAppAthens team. Insect images by Matthew Feist, bug hotel image by Bekka Brodie. Story Map developed by the Voinovich School GIS Team.
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1
Rhododendron flower pollinators
The tour begins right outside the OHIO Museum Complex in Lin Hall. Rhododendron flowers bloom in the Spring (May and June) and are very attractive to insects, including butterflies and flower flies, but are particularly attractive to bumblebees. Bumblebees are BUZZ pollinators, they lock on to a flower and rapidly move their wings, which causes the flower to vibrate, dislodging the yummy pollen. So, you may be able to hear them before you see them. When the flowers are no longer in bloom, look for beetles and caterpillars feasting on the leaves.
Carefully cross the road and head down to the pollinator garden below the lower parking lot.
2
Bee hotels
Solitary, native bees are builders and make their nests in the ground, and in cracks or crevices in walls or wood. We can also cater to their needs via a “bee hotel”. A female bee builds tube-shaped holes and, using a mortar-like mud, sections off multiple rooms (or cells) for her babies (larvae). Each cell contains an egg and enough pollen and nectar to sustain the larvae after they hatch. Plugged hole means NO VACANCY!
3
Hillside meadows predator and prey
Across the meadow, dragonflies can be spotted cruising through the air through much of the year looking to capture prey for their dinner. Flies, bees, and butterflies also fly by, resting and dining at flowers.
4
Hiding in the grasses
If you look in between blades of grass, you may spot grasshoppers, katydids, and crickets…if you have a picnic you will soon see different species of ants…and if the sun is setting, you will hear the meadow’s insects long before you see them!
5
Beneficial woodland bugs
Tens of thousands of insects can be found from the forest floor up through the tree canopy. On the forest floor you can find ground beetles, crickets, and ants. In the understory, you may discover stick insects, praying mantis, snipe flies, butterflies and mosquitos. And in the canopy, many species abound, including cicadas, woodboring beetles and caterpillars. Many of these insects provide benefits to humans and the natural environment by pollinating plants, recycling nutrients, decomposing vegetation, and providing pest management and food for wildlife.
6
Pollinator plaza
Look closely at a patch of wildflowers and you will see that it is just as busy as any city! Pollinators are a diverse bunch, so look for more than bees busily buzzing by. For example, hover flies can often be seen hovering over flowers trying to obtain sweet nectar. They have distinctive stripes making them look like a bee, but this is just to trick potential predators into thinking they have a nasty sting! There are over 200,000 different species of pollinators, including other flies, butterflies, moths, beetles, and ants. See if you can spot one of each bustling from plant to plant and doing the important work of moving pollen.
7
Explore!
Stay around and explore some more. Think about the 1 million species of insects on our planet and try to draw a few that you see. And as you return home, keep your eyes open for familiar and new species in the different habitats all around you.
