Dingle 9: what's bugging you?

 Thursday July 18 Riley Young - Bugs, Bugs, and More Bugs!

 Today was the last day of sampling here in the Dingle Peninsula. We left the hostel at 9 am to go to the Milltown River where we went to look at various species of bugs to see the species richness at separate locations on the river. Our first stop was as far upriver as we could go. This ended up being just before farm runoff to see if that played a factor in the species richness levels.
        We went for a short walk across a field and into the small river. The section that we walked to had a small waterfall that my group utilized to catch the bugs in nets to later classify. While letting water sift through the net, we also scrubbed rocks under the water and moved about the gravelly floor to help us collect more insects than the ones just swimming. We then collected the bugs in a basin and separated them into different sections on a tray making notes of the species with the help of Professor McCabe and iNaturalist. We did a few replications and each group ended up with about 120 insects recorded in total – That's a lot of bugs!!          
        One of the more common insects found were Caddisfly larvae. An interesting thing to see was a sort of “fight club” that they formed when placed in the trays. If any of the other larvae came too close then they would bite, pick up, and sort of throw their opponent to a different area. Granted they were not exactly thrown but rather placed in a different area, the fighting was entertaining to see nonetheless. Another surprising find, at least to me, was the freshwater shrimp in the river. Over in the United States, it is less common to find them in rivers, but rather found in lakes instead as described by Professor McCabe. 

        Besides collecting insect species, another objective of ours was to look at different bird species at the various locations that we went to on the Dingle Peninsula. We wanted to take a close look at these birds and see the variety of habitats that they can inhabit. Such as a European robin being found by an ocean cliffside and pastures. By keeping note of all species, whether that be plants, flying animals or even aquatic ones, we can make a stronger connection between species and ecology. It also allows for the data we collect to be utilized by potential researchers in Ireland in the Future.