No, not an emo post.

Today I finished putting all the gypsy moths in individual bottles, and of course had to dispose of the empty pupa shells:

Looks tasty, doesn’t it?

I also took some shots of one of the nicer shells, from a large female:

And her final molt:

I like that you can see the split in the head where she wriggled out.

Monday! Time to quit slacking.
Spent a few hours at the greenhouse, grinding poplar leaf samples, then preparing oak leaf samples for freeze-drying.
Saw a cute bug and let him crawl all over me before letting him loose in the lab. Pictures of him will follow at a late date, because I took them with the proper camera rather than the iPhone.
Watched some guys do roadwork.
Ate a huge yummy sandwich. Brie, ham, caramelized onions, granny apple slices on focaccia.
Going to see Moon with Jonathan. Yay!

Pictures all in a jumbled heap:

Secret lair, mad science, etc.

Ack, I dropped off the face of the earth.  Sorry about that.  A midterm, a couple of nasty lab reports, creation of a new website for my mom’s new business (will link when it’s got some proper content), and a ridiculous amount of course work later, I have finally managed to get enough time to make a post.  Huzzah!

Exciting Gypsy moth news - a few of them emerged from their pupae this week!

I stuck this male in the freezer for a bit to slow him down for photos, since we don’t want stray males flying about the building:

The female didn’t get the same treatment at first, since they’re too fat to fly, but I discovered that they can crawl well enough:

After that one crawled onto the camera lens several times, I decided to put her on ice for a moment, and she cooperated nicely after that: