Agricultural Insect Internship
Winter Quarter 2015 Agricultural landscapes provide important habitat for wildlife, and I study how bats use farmland in California’s Central Coast region. My current research focuses on what bats eat, which habitats they use, and how farming practices shape these patterns. I hope to help farmers maximize bat predation of insect pests. Managing insects is an important aspect of farming, and insect abundance influences where bats go to forage. I have collected night-­‐flying insects while monitoring bat activity on farms across the region. These paired samples will help us understand how important insect abundance and diversity are to our local bats. I am looking for interns who are independent, highly motivated, and have previous experience with insect identification. Students that have taken ENVS108, and ideally ENVS108L, are encouraged to apply. Interns will work in our lab to identify insect samples from black light traps to order (or family for beetles) (90%) and to enter data (10%). Exceptional interns may be invited to participate in summer research capturing and tracking bats. Interns will contribute to local bat conservation, practice skills in research and critical thinking, and gain experience using a dichotomous key. Contact Elissa Olimpi at [email protected].