Monthly Archives: April 2020

UCFC during the pandemic

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A person sits at a desk using a microscope to examine objects on slides, surrounded by various small tools and materials, in a well-lit room with light-colored walls and doorways.A woman sits at a desk with a microscope and various paperwork in a room with window blinds and a bookshelf in the background.

A person with short brown hair and a blue shirt smiles while working at a microscope. The table has various insect samples and lab equipment.A man with a beard and a gray shirt smiles while standing next to a microscope in a room with birds in cages in the background.

UCF employees must work remotely in these crazy times, so fortunately we have a large backlog of trap samples from surveys, bioblitzes and ecological projects to sort through, and then pin, label and database the specimens.  There are also many specimens to identify – doing so often leads us to finding new distributions, natural history, and even undescribed species. The current Bug Closet techs (pictured: Alessandra, Vikki, Rachel, and Dylan) are well-trained and experienced, and so reliably able to take their work home with them.