I just posted a few photos of some of the insects we have been radio-tracking with micro-transmitters. The transmitters are about half the size of pez candies and run off of the smallest available watch battery. They emit a beep every few seconds that we can pick-up with a special receiver and last for a few weeks.These micro-transmitters allow us for the first time ever to track the movements of individual insects, something that is critical to understanding their biology.

We have also tracked katydids at Barro Colorado Island at the Smithsonian Tropical Research institute on Barro Colorado Island and I'll post some of the them a bit later which ties in perfectly with a really cool event being held tomorrow night in the New York City area.

Tomorrow night is the First Annual NYC Cricket Crawl for Citizen Scientist's to help determine the species of katydids in NYC and the surrounding region. This is a really cool project being sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History and the New York Entomological Society and others. Everyone can participate and help the biologists gather important information about katydids. Not to mention, you'll be out at night listening to all the cool night sounds! The katydid survey is by ear and their is a great deal of useful information on the Discover life website at www.discoverlife.org\cricket\

The Friends of the East Brunswick Environmental Commission are running a Cricket Crawl expedition in our township parks, and anyone interested can come along, or do one in their town too.           

Basically, go out, listen for katydids at night, submit your information to the biologists running it, and have fun...sounds like a great Friday night to me!