WelcomeHello Family and Friends!
January 16th, 2018 I am so excited to write that I will be spending the next 4-6 months on the beautiful Barro-Colorado Island (BCI) in Panama working as a Research Assistant for the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. I have created this blog to share my buggy adventures with loved ones far away. Thank you all for showing me love, support, and compassion in all that I do. I dedicate this incredible journey to my family and friends, without you I wouldn't be here. |
Project:
The project I will be working on at BCI is called La Historia Natural y la Evolucion del Comportamiento de los Artropodos or The Natural History and Evolution of Arthropod Behavior. I will be assisting PhD candidate Callum Kingwell in his project on pheromone evolution of the above bee in the genus Megalopta. The main species we will be studying is Megalopta genalis.
Forget night vision goggles!!!
Courtesy of evolution these bees are equipped with the ability to see at night, pretty cool eh? Many insects have 5 eyes, two big ones on the sides of their head called compound eyes and three small ones on the top of their head called ocelli. The ocelli detect light and dark. In this bee the ocelli are large and modified to make them ~27 times more sensitive to light than diurnal bees. Megalopta sp. are in the family Halictidae, otherwise known as sweat bees. They are inhabitants of Central American rainforests (such as BCI) and are active after dusk and before dawn.
The project I will be working on at BCI is called La Historia Natural y la Evolucion del Comportamiento de los Artropodos or The Natural History and Evolution of Arthropod Behavior. I will be assisting PhD candidate Callum Kingwell in his project on pheromone evolution of the above bee in the genus Megalopta. The main species we will be studying is Megalopta genalis.
Forget night vision goggles!!!
Courtesy of evolution these bees are equipped with the ability to see at night, pretty cool eh? Many insects have 5 eyes, two big ones on the sides of their head called compound eyes and three small ones on the top of their head called ocelli. The ocelli detect light and dark. In this bee the ocelli are large and modified to make them ~27 times more sensitive to light than diurnal bees. Megalopta sp. are in the family Halictidae, otherwise known as sweat bees. They are inhabitants of Central American rainforests (such as BCI) and are active after dusk and before dawn.