Backyard Biodiversity

Martha O’Kennon, Ph.D., Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science emerita, Albion College.

Tuesdays. 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 pm. February 2, 9, 16, 23.

Held in Google Meeting; instructions will be provided to participants. Limited to 24 participants—if you are interested in this class, be sure to read the “Policy for Limited Enrollment Classes.”

When you go out into a garden, what do you see? If there are flowers, you may see the easy ones: Bees and Butterflies. But if you look closer, and especially if you turn over a leaf, you may start to see the world beneath the big colorful ones. You’ll see Beetles, perhaps, and Flies. Another level of familiarity may lead you to see the huge family of Bugs, Ants, and Aphids. As you learn more about the Bugs, for instance, you may begin to recognize groups of them, like Assassin Bugs, Leafhoppers, Treehoppers, Planthoppers. As your eyes get sharper, you will suddenly become aware of creatures like Barklice, which are so small that it takes a good camera to start to distinguish them. All of these fit into the world of Insects. To your surprise, you may find that these creatures, so small you can barely see them at all, have lives of love, death, and family structures like ours. We’ll also look at the plants that the other creatures interact with.

We will, surprisingly, be able even in February to discuss the big ideas behind the study of “Bugs” under which rubric many people lump any little thing that creeps, flies, walks or hops. Did you know that there are six-legged critters that aren’t insects? Well, there are. We need to study how they procreate, how they hide from or even mimic other creatures, what they eat, and who they’re eaten by. This is part of how Biodiversity works: it maintains the balance of nature. And that’s the aim of this class – to study the balance of nature and how it works in small communities. I’ve been photographing this richness of life for quite a few years, and have maintained a weekly blog that studies how the world around us changes from season to season.

Although this class is meeting in the winter, I hope to schedule another class in the summer, where we can see some of this rich life going on. If not this summer, then whenever Covid permits.

We will mostly be using my websites and other material available on the Internet for illustrations.