This past week, I attended the Invertebrates in Education and Conservation Conference (IECC). It was held right here in Tucson, at the El Conquistador Hilton Resort in Oro Valley, and let me just say this: it was incredible. It’s been a number of years since I’ve gone to any sort of entomology gathering, and this was the very first time I’d been to a conference alone, attending without family or friends or anyone I knew. I stepped way outside of my comfort zone, and I am so glad I did.
IECC is made up of paper presentations, a keynote speaker, field trips, roundtables, workshops, and more. The first full day of the conference, July 31, was devoted to a handful of field trips and a keynote presentation by Ken-ichi Ueda, the founder of iNaturalist. Since all four field trips were concurrent, I opted for the Ruby Road excursion, led by Jim Melli of the San Diego Natural History Museum. With nearly 40 registrants for this field trip, it was the largest, and by 7:15 AM we all crammed into three vans and headed toward the Mexican border.
Our first stop was a rest area just south of Green Valley. Officially, it was a pee break but we saw some great bugs there that had been attracted to the lights overnight:
Pyrota akhurstiana 
Epicauta sp. 
Sphingicampa hubbardi
There were many, many small moths and a whole range of different antlion species. The blister beetles were particularly numerous, as well.
An hour of driving later, we were finally on Ruby Road, which winds through the Coronado National Forest in Santa Cruz County. It had just rained, so the plants were lush and damp. We made several collecting stops at a number of different elevations, but at no point were we above around 4500′. The landscape was gorgeous, with grasslands and mesquite, craggy red mountains and seasonally dry riverbeds.
On this particular trip, I found a whole lot of colorful beetles, mostly Chrysomelids. The vegetation was swarming with tiny grasshoppers. At no point was I ever bothered by mosquitoes or other biting flies, and there was nary a tick to be seen — a huge contrast compared to collecting trips in Michigan!
Charidotella emarginata 
Chelymorpha phytophagica 
Scaphomorphus sp. 
Eleodes sp. 
Deloyala guttata 
Cylindera lemniscata 
Very similar in appearance to Calligrapha serpentina, but I don’t think it’s the same species. 
Eleodes sp.
Aside from the beetles, there were a lot of other goodies, as well. One of the most striking critters we came across were several large velvet mites — certainly the largest mites I’ve ever encountered. They were found lumbering over the wet ground, and when disturbed, they tucked all eight legs in tight to their fuzzy bodies.
Dinothrombium sp. 
Lepidoptera spotted along Ruby Road —
Spiders —
Phidippus sp. 
And, some other insects —
What was so wonderful about this field trip was being surrounded by folks who share similar passions and interests. Every invertebrate we encountered was special to someone, and often crowds would form around a bug or spider, geeking out and taking photographs.
It was pushing 5 PM by the time we returned to the resort. Later in the evening, we were all treated to Ken-ichi Ueda’s keynote presentation on iNaturalist. It was a really wonderful talk, highlighting the importance of citizen science, community input on IDs, and the power of photographers and identifiers in relation to helping researchers understand where and when species are found.
Next up: IECC 2019, Day 2: Presentations, the exhibit hall, and blacklighting at Peppersauce Canyon!
Bug Talk 