Tuesday, November 27, 2007

What's That Bug?

Every once in a while the librarians at BHPL are asked to identify an insect that someone has found at home. (For purely squeamish reasons, we prefer a picture of the insect to the real thing!) So how do we go about it? The first step is to narrow it down to which type of insect it is: cricket, beetle, etc. Then we flip through photos in our insect reference books and web sites like What's That Bug until we find a match. For a more scientific opinion, Rutgers will ID it for you for a fee (it also identifies plants and fungi.)
So which insects have been identified in Berkeley Heights in recent months? A camel cricket - originally thought to be a spider – and a stink bug – thought to be a beetle at first.

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