Once, when I was a student, I went home to see the family one weekend. As I was taking Systematic Entomology at the time and a collection was a requirement, I thought I would spend some time doing just that. I set out to a local stream with my black light and collecting equipment to see what I could find. As it happened, it was a good night for insects and the stream turned out to be an excellent location to collect. I collected specimens from dozens of families in a number of orders while enjoying the sound of the water and warmth of the evening.
After a time, as it had gotten rather late into the night, I decided to wrap up collecting and head home.
The route home was a secondary highway with a 55 mph speed limit at the time. In those days, I was driving a rather quick little car with a turbo-charged engine and proceeded towards home quite briskly. As I approached the city limit sign, where the speed limit dropped to 35 mph, I slowed my pace and continued on. I hadn't immediately noticed that a car had moved in behind me as I continued my drive going through the center of town. Near the city hall along Main Street, the darkness behind me was suddenly lit by colorful, flashing lights. Pulling over, I rolled down my window as the car with the flashing lights pulled in behind me.
Momentarily, an officer carrying a flashlight stepped up to my window and probed the interior of my car with his light and started to ask where I was headed, when he suddenly exclaimed "Are those bugs in there?". I remember laughing a little and telling him, "Why yes they are" as I noticed his light had settled on my collecting equipment. There is a device that is sometimes referred to as a "pooter", but I prefer aspirator. It consists of rubber stopper with two metal tubes protruding through it. On one of the tubes, an 18" piece of rubber tubing is connected. The stopper fits into clear glass or plastic vials and you can suck up insect specimens with it. Until that moment, it hadn't occurred to me how much it looks like drug paraphernalia.
I handed over my license and explained to him where I had been, where I was going and what I had been doing. He seemed to relax considerably and his attitude became friendlier. We chatted a bit more and he let me know that he was going to just give me a warning. But I should watch my speed, since I was doing over 60 when I got to the town speed limit sign.
I thanked him and as I drove away, I was thinking, "Boy, I'm glad I slowed down."
