Little Desert National Park VIC Bush Blitz | Oct 2018

Today was the Bush Blitz Discovery Day in Nhill.

Nhill is a town in the Wimmera, in Western Victoria, Australia. Fun fact: Nhill is actually halfway between Melbourne and Adelaide.

We drove to Nhill Memorial Community Centre at 8:00am to start to set up for the day. There were displays showcasing live and preserved specimens of a range of animals, including spiders, frogs, cockroaches, grasshoppers, beetles, moths, and various plants. Sam from the Herpetology team asked me to help set up some of the enclosures with dirt and foliage which was super fun. It was amazing to see the excitement of the children and families as they moved around the displays, and participated in the hands-on activities absorbing as much knowledge as possible. I learnt so much myself from all of the incredible scientists.

On setup, the scorpions were playing hard to get with Sam’s forceps but she eventually placed the two scorpions in the mysterious peekaboo black box. She added a UV light and bam! The scorpions were glowing a bright aqua! It is said that scorpions produce the light from a layer within their exoskeleton. However, it’s actually a controversial topic for scientists as to why they do so. I never knew that scorpions fluoresce under ultraviolet rays. So if you are out in scorpion infested waters (well, the land), it may be beneficial to bring a UV lamp.