I was surprized one day to get an email from a researcher from a state university. It turns out he had googled "rain beetles" and had come across my blog. I never knew my blogs could be accessed from googling, so imagine my surprise!  He asked me if I would be willing to collect some specimens for him the next time the beetles appeared.

So after googling his name to make sure he was legitimate, I contacted him and volunteered to help him out.

The beetles don't come out until fall when the first good rain hits. Last weekend we had such a rain and the beetles were everywhere. They are attracted to light, and we have lights on constantly around our house--thus we get quite a population.

Our new dog, a Lab, mutilated some, but I was able to collect a dozen or so specimens over two or three days in a jar.  I kept them in the garage where it was cool until the researcher could come up to our area and collect them. Our ag advisor is into bugs also, so she volunteered to collect some too. We met at her office and all of us chatted for awhile.

One of the things the researcher learned from us was that the bugs start coming out before it actually starts raining. He surmised this was because the bugs are sensitive to humidity. The other piece of information he thought was interesting was my blog story about the bugs collecting in the coke machine.

Which goes to show, you just never know what information you might have about the critters around you. So, my dear friends and nature lovers, write about your own experiences and share them with all of us! You never know when you might be helping scientific study!