Blacklighting: My New Favorite Hobby

Guess who spent the past two nights in a cemetery looking at bugs and is now in love? It's me!

So some folks in my naturalist class are working with me on a prairie restoration project in a cemetery, and part of that involves using iNaturalist to catalogue any flora and fauna we find living there. One of the group members is an avid blacklighter, and he usually uses his porch to set up a white sheet illuminated by a blacklight to attract insects, then just hangs out to see what shows up for him to photograph.

Last night and tonight he took the setup out to the worksite and I joined him, and oh my gosh it is my new favorite thing to do!

 

All I can liken it to is when you're playing Pokémon for the first time, you're wandering through the tall grass and seeing all these amazing creatures that are all new and exciting to you, and your friend who's already played the game is leaning over your shoulder going "Oh get that one, that's a rare one," and "aw that one's everywhere," and "did you know the pokedex entry for this implies it eats children?"

Most of my bug pictures came out too blurry to identify, but I'm getting there! I ended up getting a cool shot of a scarab beetle infested with parasitic mites that were crawling on the poor guy's belly! I got a lot of shots that showed an impressive amount of detail on bugs I'd barely be able to see with the naked eye!

You also get a good sense of the personalities of bugs when you do this. Crane flies bring all their friends with them and then just kinda find a spot to chill. June bugs buzz clumsily and haphazardly into objects seemingly at random. Sphynx moths flit about with curiousity, then when they land they continue vibrating their wings with an excited energy. Lacewings seem to know how elegant they look.

This really is an amazing group of people. I'm never good at socializing and find it hard to talk to people. The only thing I really know how to do is catch bugs and show them to people in hopes that they'll understand that means I like them. This class peoject group seems to be the only environment in which that socialization tactic actually works. It's cool to see other adults get as excited about cool bugs as I am!

So yeah! 10/10, would reccomend. I've been convinced to buy myself a blacklight and do this every night on my apartment's patio.