Deer carcass condition on 10/07/2002.

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PICTURES

Click on any image below to see it larger.

Aren't the babies cute?	No, I'm not showing off my fancy watch band. The intention is to show you the insect that looks like a fruit fly to the left of my watch band. Even if you click to enlarge, it's much too small to see much but a speck, but that's the best that our digital camera can do.
I think that thing to the left is a stick, because no bones belong there. Hmmm. That circle on the "DAY 4" sign was a nickle. I guess the camera flash got it perpendicular and it zapped the camera back.	Click on this one. IMO, an excellent closeup of the larvae.

58 degrees, 98% humidity. (I can not see my breath at all). There is an evanescent cloud of condensation above the carcass.

If you saw yesterday's page before last night (10/06/2002), you probably want to look at it again. I looked up the insects, and I added pictures of the bluebottle flies that I collected.

This morning there are some fruit fly-like insects flying over the pit. (Not too many. Perhaps 40.) In the air they look light (like light gray or brown), but one landed on my arm and it looks like an ordinary black fruit fly. It's possible that what landed on my arm is not the same insect that is swarming above the pit.

I see what looks like bone right beside the head, but it must be a branch. I'll have to look into that tomorrow.

I forgot to tell you about the insects that I collected yesterday. The hairy rove beetles were very active. According to what I've read, they are diggers and biters, but not stingers (i.e., they have no poison). I had them sealed on cardboard with plastic tape. For hours they kept biting at the tape, making snapping noises. When I finally killed one of them, it was really a challenge. I had to cut the head right off, and even then all of the legs and antennae kept going for a long time after. Most of the bluebottle larvae were also very active. You could see red lines through the middle of their white bodies, presumably from the blood and guts they had been feasting on. One larva had amazingly attitude. This thing somehow pushed through the tape I had sealing it down four times. Every time I would seal the tape up better and think, There is no wasy that that larva is getting out of there this time. Then a few minutes later I would see in the corner of my eye that it was making a run (or squirm) for the edge of the cardboard. My equipment was actually a manilla folder and wide, clear packing tape.

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