Curator's blog

OSAC assisted Josh Vlach (Oregon Dept. Agriculture, Salem) with the judging for 4H at the State Fairground in Salem. If you're up at the State Fair and want to see some outstanding examples of young entomologists - stop by the 4H pavillion and check out the collections! 

Oregon Zoo summer interns visit OSAC to learn about insects; OSAC hosted an hour-long tour of the collection for students working with the Oregon Zoo as part of their Insectarium (or Insect Zoo).

What do you get when you mix 75 energetic kids and an assortment of cool arthropods -- you get: McMinville Public Library's summer reading program, which focussed on insects this year.

OSAC traveled to Southern Oregon and Northern California to look for insects and join up with the Berkeley Entomologists - out on their annual Spring trip. OSAC associates: Adam Martinez and Louisa Hooven joined Chris Marshall on a 2 day camping trip to the Smith River area of Northern California.

Biology of Insects (Z-365) an introductory entomology course offered by the OSU Zoology Department and taught by OSAC curator, Dr. C. J. Marshall - headed to the Lost Forest of Central Oregon for a weekend of camping and entomologizing. Fun was had by all - check out some of the photos from the trip here: Z365_2008

OSAC Student Curatorial Assistant, Adam Martinez ('09) was recently awarded the DeLoach Work Scholarship to conduct entomological work in OSAC during Spring term 2008. Mr. Martinez has already been volunteering in the museum for nearly a year, helping us to curate and provide digital access to the Cicada collection (Thanks Adam!).

Angie Tissi ('08), OSAC's chief Curatorial Associate, has been awarded a summer internship at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. Ms. Tissi will be working in conjunction with the Walter Reed Biosystematics Unit under the supervision of Dr. Richard C. Wilkerson.

Earlier this month (March, 2008) the OSAC expanded its holdings to include Mollusca! Yes, we know they're not arthropods, but we felt that this professionally curated collection of Pacific Northwest gastropods would be right at home at the Oregon State Arthropod Collection.

Our first Dragonfly Workshop was held on OSU's campus on March 8th and was a huge success. Between the morning beginner's session and the afternoon advanced session, over 40 participants spent the day learning about Dragonflies and Damselflies. Participants came from as far away as Gold Beach and Bend Oregon.

February 12th marks the birthday of perhaps the most famous beetle collector ever: Mr. Charles Darwin, who would have turned 199 this year! The OSAC hosted the Zoology Department's second annual Darwin's Birthday party