Encontremos Abejas!
Do not be deceived, my Spanish is still no good. However, my lab mate Felipe taught me the very important above phrase. Encontremos abejas translates to "Let's find bees!" To the left is a gorgeous photo of a Megalopta adult. This week is devoted to finding more bees. Photo credit. |
February 4th, 2018
Today was spent preparing for an exciting week of bee collecting! I was in the lab most of the day working on protocols and organizing materials. The day ended with ping-pong in the lounge (not pictured). Next week I will try to upload some photos of the lounge with the infamous ping-pong table.
February 5th, 2018
{Monday Funday}
Today was spent searching for bee nests, and of course finding other exciting things along the way. Nests were searched for on the AVA trail, which is accessible by the WMW (William Morton Wheeler) trail which I wrote about last week! Bees were indeed found along with a really interesting spider that mimics an ant and a caterpillar that mimics a moss covered wood. Mimicry is a fascinating evolutionary tactic that is heavily employed in nature by insects, mammals, reptiles, plants! Humans are not the only animals that try to be something they are not ;)
Today was spent searching for bee nests, and of course finding other exciting things along the way. Nests were searched for on the AVA trail, which is accessible by the WMW (William Morton Wheeler) trail which I wrote about last week! Bees were indeed found along with a really interesting spider that mimics an ant and a caterpillar that mimics a moss covered wood. Mimicry is a fascinating evolutionary tactic that is heavily employed in nature by insects, mammals, reptiles, plants! Humans are not the only animals that try to be something they are not ;)
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Lichen or not, it's a caterpillar!
To the left is a video of a caterpillar getting into position to blend in with its woody surroundings. This immature moth has a wise method for avoiding predators, staying unseen! I guess it's the same reason we wear camouflage... well maybe not. Regardless, imagine having to wear camo for your ENTIRE childhood, that is pretty extreme. I believe this caterpillar is in the Noctuidae family. I am not sure what the species level ID, therefore submissions are being accepted. |
February 6th, 2018
Hello! Most of today was spent working on a diet experiment and weighing larvae and pollen. I also spent a very short amount of time in the field installing an observation nests. If the female bees stay inside of the artificial nests and start provisioning young then we will record their behavior to learn more about them. If the female bees flee and don't start a nest then we will have more collecting to do!
February 7th, 2018
Back in the field. Today was spent searching for nests. It was a productive day for sure, lots of bees were found! My lab mate Felipe spotted a harvestman mud arena (more info below) and on my way to take a nap I ran into two monkey researchers watching Capuchins jumping through the trees.
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Coneheaded Termites
These termites are everywhere on BCI! They can be found in decaying wood and it doesn't seem that they have much of a preference for the diameter or type of the stick. Nasutitermes corniger are different from most termites as get their common name, coneheaded, due to the red pointy shape of the soldiers heads. This pointy and somewhat evil looking head of the soldiers can spray a noxious sticky liquid onto predators. Check out a picture of their interesting morphology to the left. Important note: Termites are eusocial, meaning they have large societies with division of labor, a single reproductive female, and castes. |
THIS IS REALLY COOL
Now that I have your attention, please watch the video to the right! My lab mate found this mud arena in the field today. This was under the bark of a decaying log. I cannot find much information on this behavior but it seems that the harvestman, order: Opiliones, build these mud arenas to use as nurseries for their young. The male is guarding the arena (far right corner in the video) and the female is caring for the young (far left outside of the arena). |
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February 8th, 2018
Today was spent... COLLECTING BEES! Above are some photos from all the moments in between.
February 9th, 2018
History of Trail Nomenclature Vol.3
Theodore Christian Schneirla
Theodore Christian Schneirla
Today's topic is the TSC trail, named after T.C. Schneirla (1902-1968). T.C. was an animal psychologist and is considered the pioneer of army ant behavioral studies. He was a professor at New York University, NYU, and later became a curator in the American Museum of Natural History. He took his first trip to BCI in 1932 and came back for eight more seasons. It was at BCI that T.C. discovered behavioral patterns of army ants, such as their plastic activity cycles and seasonality of raids. Schneirla also wrote numerous books and papers about animal psychology that still impact the field today.
Quick note on army ants: There are over 200 different species of army ants from around four different tribes. Since all ants are in the same family, Formicidae, tribes are an important higher level taxonomic ranking to distinguish them apart. Army ants are named as such because of their large foraging raids. They "march" through the forests in long lines and rather than brining food back to the nest, the ants will pile on top of prey and consume it on the spot. Check out this super cool video from 1968 by our very own TCS about army ant behavior.
February 10th, 2018
I have very few pictures from one of the longest days so far! Today was the ever anticipated Coffee House in the city of Gamboa (about 30 minutes by boat from BCI). The Coffee House takes place twice a year, it is a day of swimming, outdoor games, a talent show, dinner, and dancing! The talent show was amazing, there was everything from mozart music to Irish step-dancing. The Coffee House is most exciting because it brings together employees from all of the STRI facilities in Panama. In addition to Coffee House fun today I learned about the "gym" on BCI, which I am very excited about, and I found a GIANT female Scarabaeidae beetle. Yay for Saturday's!