Zoo InternQuest is a seven-week career exploration program for San Diego County high school juniors and seniors. Students have the unique opportunity to meet professionals working for the San Diego Zoo, Safari Park, and Institute for Conservation Research, learn about their jobs, and then blog about their experience online. Follow their adventures here on the Zoo’s Website! The Insect House is home to thousands of bugs, some of which are part of some of the many breeding programs at the Zoo. This week, Ester Chang gave the interns a tour of the Insect House, highlighting some of her favorite insects and convincing many of us that insects are actually pretty cool and tremendously important. [caption id="attachment_119789" align="aligncenter" width="4752"] Ester Chang is a Senior Insect Keeper at the San Diego Zoo and has worked at the Zoo for nine years. She loves entomology, which is the study of insects, because discoveries are being made in the field constantly. One of her favorite parts of being an Insect Keeper is watching them eat; insects are not food driven like most other animals, so getting an insect to eat is very rewarding. She also sees her job as a way to expose people to bugs in a positive environment as most people are either scared or disgusted by bugs.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_119790" align="aligncenter" width="4752"] The Brazilian white-knee tarantula is named for the striking white coloring on its legs. This tarantula preys on rodents, small reptiles, and amphibians working as population control for its ecosystem, the northern rainforests of Brazil. When fully grown, they are about 8 inches long and can live up to 25 years.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_119796" align="aligncenter" width="4752"] Here, Ms. Chang is holding a spiny stick insect. These insects grow anywhere from five to eight inches long. Like most stick insects, they sway back and forth to resemble a leaf rustling in the breeze. Even more interestingly, females can reproduce when a male is not available. In this instance, the offspring will always be female, but this adaptation allows the population to grow.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_119791" align="aligncenter" width="4752"] The spiny stick insect is native to Australia. This species of stick insect resembles a dead leaf so that it can camouflage, which is its best defense. Since their wings are vestigial and they cannot fly, the females’ second line of defense is throwing their eggs at potential predators.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_119792" align="aligncenter" width="4752"] Leaf cutter ants are the biggest consumer of leaves in the forest. However, the ant is not ingesting the leaves, they are harvesting the leaves to feed fungus they grow inside of the colony. The fungus can be picky about the species of leaves, so the ants must have a variety of leaf species to harvest from. The ants cutting the leaves are females; the colony is almost entirely comprised of females as the males die immediately after mating.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_119793" align="aligncenter" width="4752"] Pictured above is a leaf cutter ant colony. In the wild, these colonies would grow much larger; in fact, they would grow large enough to support nine million ants. Inside of the chambers is the fungus the ants grow. The ants feed the fungus so that the fungus can be consumed by the colony. This is very similar to agriculture in which a crop is cared for by humans to later be consumed.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_119794" align="aligncenter" width="4752"] There are a variety of jobs within a leaf cutter ant colony. Minimas are tiny ants that sit on top of the leaf another ant carries and waves its legs; this behavior will keep parasites away from the ant carrying the leaf. Soldier ants are larger in size with big heads and are capable of a powerful bite so they can defend the colony. This bite is powerful enough to draw blood from a human.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_119795" align="aligncenter" width="4752"] Here, Ms. Chang is holding a millipede. Contrary to popular belief, millipedes do not actually have a million legs. However, they do have four legs for every ring on their body. The rings are a good indicator of the age of the millipede because every time they shed, which is usually once a year as they mature, the millipede grows another ring.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_119797" align="aligncenter" width="4752"] This giant dead-leaf mantis is native to Malaysia. Like the spiny stick insect, this mantis has the appearance of a dead leaf to camouflage into its environment. The mantis has the ability to fly, but it won’t do so unless threatened.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_119798" align="aligncenter" width="4752"] At the end of the tour of the Insect House, interns had a chance to roam around and view the many unique insects. Here are some whirligig beetles. These beetles live most of their life in the water, and their many adaptations allow them to thrive in an aquatic environment.[/caption]

Sarah, Photo Week Two, Fall Session 2016