Bug U

Yesterday's adventure took us to the Universidade Federal do Paraná 

(Federal University of Paraná)

Wayne mentors a doctoral candidate there and he needed to check up on his progress in writing his thesis in - you guessed it - flies! Can you imagine?! Besides having to write all those pages about his fly research, he has to do it in English, because English is the international language for dissertations. A bit of a challenge, to say the least.

Anyway, this is Daniel in the upper left picture with some of those flies.

The University houses not just flies but all sorts of bugs in those drawers. They are very proud of their collections.

This no BYU, WSU, USU, or even U of U when it comes to campuses and facilities.

 Wayne and Diane have many specimens of their speciality, shore flies, in the collections. These flies are about the size of a gnat. Who knew that annoying flies could be so little. 

These pictures are for David. I'm sure he is enjoying his new lab facilities at the Huntsman Center.

(Here are some of the students in their labs - and me looking at the cells of a butterfly wing.)

Speaking of borboletas, Olaf Meilke (upper left picture) is the head butterfly guy at the University. He has the best collection in all of Brazil.

(I do realize that big one is a moth!)

Luciane Marinoni is in charge of most of the other bugs.

Some haven't been pinned yet.

This is the outside of the Biology Building.

Of note, the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR) is one of the oldest universities in Brazil and is a symbol of Curitiba. These federal universities are tuition-free. However, most of the students in these universities come from middle-class or wealthy families. Applicants must take very competitive entrance exams to be in these universities and most spots go to the private school graduates who are better prepared than those who attend the public schools.

As an alternative, college students can attend for-profit universities, which enroll 3/4 of all wishing to get a higher education. The plus side to all this is that more and more young people in Brazil are realizing how important a good education is in order to raise their standard of living.

Well, that was our day visiting all the bugs at the University.

Get it?

BUG U

(P.S The Portuguese word for flies is MOSCAS.)