Washington DC Arthropod Biodiversity Project ......

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Title: Information Sheet, Intern Toan Chung

Georgetown University and National Park Service Intern Final Report

Toan Chung
August 2004

I am a third-year linguistics pre-med major at Georgetown University. My interests include biology in general, conservation, medicine, musical performance, and volleyball. I’m the man who is holding a tape recorder in the above photograph.

In 2003, I worked on a comprehensive survey of the insects of the greater Washington, D.C., Area (defined as Washington, D.C.; Delaware; Pennsylvania; Maryland; New Jersey; Virginia; and West Virginia in my project). This diverse geographical area includes part of the Coastal Plain, Piedmont, Blue Ridge Mountains, Ridge-and-Valley Province, Alleghany Plateau, and Central Uplands. There are many national forests and national parks within this area. My intern experience included entering data from books, Internet sites, and scientific papers into Arthropods of the Washington, D.C., Area: A Searchable Online Database (AWDCAD).

The three other interns and I met local scientists who work on arthropods at the annual banquet of the Entomological Society of Washington and during interviews of these scientists at the Smithsonian Institution and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. During the interviews, I learned about their great enthusiasm for the work. Further, I learned about their areas of research and experiences in many parts of the world.

One of the interesting learning experiences of my internship was Dr. Barrows’ taking us on a nature walk in the national park Rock Creek Park. This was a great opportunity for us to see some of the species that we entered into AWDCAD while being able to see the beauty of the area they inhabit.

Mr. Dan Kjar produced a friendly interface with AWDCAD for data entry. On our database, one can access an inventory of arthropods of the the Washington, D.C., Area, specifically in Rock Creek Park. As part of my internship, I used many scientific journals and references to help to produce the taxon list of the database. I was also a co-author on a poster presented at the National Park Service Conference Spotlight on Natural Resources, University of District of Columbia, Van Ness Campus, March 2004.

The main arthropod groups that I entered into AWDCAD are Coleoptera (Beetles), Diptera (Flies), and Hymenoptera (Ants, Bees, and Wasps).

I thank the National Park Service and Georgetown University for my enlightening internship.

References

Barrows, E. M., D. S. Kjar, C. R. Bird, B. Q. Chung, T. Q. Chung, and M. R. Minor. 2004. Arthropods of the Washington, D.C., Area: A Searchable Online Database (AWDCAD). Website. http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/barrowse/nps/ (10 August 2004)

Barrows, E. M., D. S. Kjar, C. R. Bird, B. Q. Chung, T. Q. Chung, and M. R. Minor. 2004. Arthropods of the Washington, D. C., Area, Emphasizing Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve and Rock Creek Park. Laboratory of Entomology and Biodiversity (LEB). Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. National Park Service Conference, Spotlight on Natural Resources, 24 March 2004, University of District of Columbia, Van Ness Campus.

To see reports of the other interns, please go to the homepage of this Website, enter “intern2004" into the box, and click.