JANUARY 31 – Tree Cricket Collage I have this collage framed and hanging on a wall. It allows me to see images with special meaning to me every day. It includes drawings in papers as far back as 1750, exquisite drawings in papers by BB Fulton and Thomas J Walker, photos I have taken, a photo taken of Raymond H. Beamer’s expedition in 1932, graphs and images from Oecanthinae articles, and journal covers. This one is from 1884 – Howard Ayers drawings of the development of O niveus (would later be O. fultoni) and its parasite, Teleas. It was in the 3rd volume (#8) of Memoirs of the Boston Society of Natural History. Dr. Bentley Ball Fulton’s 1915 paper: Dr. Raymond H. Beamer expedition in New Mexico, 1932. Imagine the heat during this expedition…no air conditioning in that car! His specimens in the collection at the Academy of Natural Sciences at Drexel University eventually led to the description of Oecanthus beameri in 2022. A waveform of the song I recorded of Oecanthus alexanderi – the first species for which I was a junior author on a description paper. Dr. Laurel Symes (working on being a Dr. at the time) in a Tepejuage tree recording what would later be described as Oecanthus walkeri – the first paper I co-authored and was lead author. This was when I really became obsessed with tree crickets. I included this photo to remind me of Natasha Mhatre, who along with Dr. Walker and Dr. Symes, has been so kind and complimentary to me. Even though I did not provide materials for this particular paper, this figure is so pretty I just had to include it. Changing resonator geometry to boost sound power decouples size and song frequency in a small insect (pnas.org) Tomorrow:  February will … Continue reading January