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Central Florida News


Intersection: Taking Care Of Cops, UCF’s Bug Closet, and Sister Honey’s Bakery

by (WMFE)
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The wooden filing drawers line the walls of the Collection of Anthropods, commonly called the "Bug Closet," in the first floor of the Biological Sciences building at the University of Central Florida.
Student assistant and UCF senior Erin Barbaeu stands next to an open drawer inside the hole-in-the-wall bug museum.
Green-blue beetles are one of the many kinds of insects found inside the Bug Closet.
Barbeau says beetles were a preferred insect of late Bug Closet founder Stuart Fullerton, whose spirit lives on in the ethos of the database.
A filing cabinet contains as many different species as their size permits.
Most insects are held in alcohol solutions to preserve their original shapes and textures.
Butterflies are a more popular part of the tour Bug Closet employees host for visitors.
The space is cozy and cluttered, where bottles holding specimen await possible display.
While many of the species are native to Central Florida, some come from as far as California - Fullerton's home state.
The bugs are arranged in boxes on tiny pins attached to tiny pieces of paper, which detail their species name along with date and place of capture.
A student and employee of the Bug Closet assists in the back laboratory.

New body camera footage shows the chaos and devastation first responders faced when responding to the Pulse nightclub shooting. As law enforcement ran head-first into a dangerous situation, they found themselves in a war zone.

After witnessing such an event, how do police cope with the stress, horror and chaos? A conversation with the Orlando Police Captain Tim Crews overseeing the mental well-being of the Orlando police force.

Plus a visit to the “Bug Closet,” a collection of more than a half-a-million creepy crawlers at UCF.

And how one local baker turned her mother’s recipes into a thriving business – one slice of coconut cake at a time.


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Brendan Byrne

About Brendan Byrne

Space Reporter and 'Are We There Yet?' Host

Brendan covers space news for WMFE, everything from rocket launches to the latest scientific discoveries in our universe. He hosts WMFE's weekly radio show and podcast "Are We There Yet?" which explores human space exploration. Brendan is a native Floridian, born and raised in Broward County. He moved to ... Read Full Bio »

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