Scioly.org

Thanks, this was very helpful.

Anonymous2 wrote:Thanks, this was very helpful.

Your welcome, any time you have a question, I'm happy to help

I hope nobody's asked this, but does anyone here have any tips for distinguishing between some of the families in Hymenoptera like Vespidae, Colletidae, Halictidae,
Megachilidae, Apidae?

SOnerd wrote:I hope nobody's asked this, but does anyone here have any tips for distinguishing between some of the families in Hymenoptera like Vespidae, Colletidae, Halictidae,
Megachilidae, Apidae?

That is a great question, a personally, I have never been very confident with them. Vespidae and Halictidae are usually free of hairs, and Halictidae is often iridescent/shiny green. Megachilidae's ventral/underside is clothed in a thick brush of hair. Now there's colletidae and apidae. Apidae is usually furrier than colletidae and still without the thick ventral brush. These are all very subjective differences, and the main, reliable way to tell them apart is by the cells on the wings. You can find pictures of the wings online or in the Audubon field guide.

Does anyone have any good ways to ID Odonata larvae?

135scioly wrote:Does anyone have any good ways to ID Odonata larvae?

Are we required to, or just know that the larvae is in odonata? Damselflies (Zygoptera) have three long 'tails' while Dragonflies (Anisoptera) usually have stubbier tails, if any.

I thought we had to know the larvae of the separate families within Odonata? I know a few of them, but some, like aeshnidae and gomphidae, I don't. And do we need to know zygoptera and anisoptera, because they're not on the list.

135scioly wrote:I thought we had to know the larvae of the separate families within Odonata? I know a few of them, but some, like aeshnidae and gomphidae, I don't. And do we need to know zygoptera and anisoptera, because they're not on the list.

We probably do, but I was wishing we didn't . Anyway, Anisoptera and Zygoptera are infraorders of Odonata. They just distinguish damselflies from dragonflies taxonomically.

Haha, I wish we didn't have to know them either! I'll work on that, though my regionals are on Saturday so I better figure it out soon! Also, we're allowed to have computer pictures on the cheat sheet right? Because one year in forestry everyone's cheat sheet was taken away because apparently you couldn't have computer images on it.

135scioly wrote:Haha, I wish we didn't have to know them either! I'll work on that, though my regionals are on Saturday so I better figure it out soon! Also, we're allowed to have computer pictures on the cheat sheet right? Because one year in forestry everyone's cheat sheet was taken away because apparently you couldn't have computer images on it.

I've never had a notesheet taken away for images, so I assume unless your competition clarified that, pictures are allowed.