All posts by cer7

2016

Mouse-sized cockroaches and bird-sized spiders ahead

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We spent the whole day in the classroom today in order to finish up our project and some presentations and still be able to go on a night hike.

We wrapped up our nitrogen attraction experiment by counting all the arthropods and others in our urine and the water and finding the proportion. I had so many arthropods in my ground urine, but not in my tree urine. I found a very interesting spider related to a daddy long legs which had interesting markings on its back. It was about 1cm in body length. I nicknamed it the Leg Warmer Spider.

Leg Warmer Spider
Leg Warmer Spider

During the night hike it was a fabulous time for arachnids. We saw hundreds of wolf spiders and thousands of little spiders in the leaf litter which were too fast to get a look at. We saw one huge tarantula which was about 12 ft. up on a strangler fig. It was cinnamon-y in color, and probably a female of one of the species that have been described around here.

We also saw a huge black spider that was about 4-5cm in body length on the ground in some leaf litter off the trail. Its legs were bent so it was standing very tall off the ground. We looked for scorpions under almost every log along the train and did not find any. I wanted to see one under the black light cause they glow!

I think we also saw the leg warmer spider that I had named in class earlier. Its markings on its back were very similar and it was the same size. The markings themselves glowed in the black light.

Other than the arachnids, we saw some huge cockroaches and one of them excreted glue when we picked it up and it hissed. Sam didn’t even drop it. Also we found this huge cockroach that was as big as my hand and Adrienne overcame her fear and touched it.

2016, Uncategorized

What Goes In Must Come Out

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Entrance to Las Cuevas
Entrance to Las Cuevas

I had so much fun today setting up pitfall traps and visiting the caves that give Las Cuevas its name.

In the morning we learned about nitrogen limitation in the canopy, and how most decaying matter falls to the forest floor. This lead us to hypothesize the animals in the canopy would be more attracted to a nitrogen source than animals on the forest floor. We used our own urine as the nitrogen bait for arthropods in the canopy and on the forest floor in our pitfall traps.

Later in the day we visited Las Cuevas (the actual caves), which was an amazing experience. I got to see some Mayan pottery, a peccary skeleton, and a long bone of a human skeleton.

Cave formations
Cave formations
Adrienne goes insane over pottery
Adrienne goes insane over pottery

In the caves I got covered in bat guano and actually saw the bats it came from. They may or may not have been vampire bats, but that was not confirmed. We definitely saw some species of leaf nose bat.


Arachnids were very exciting in the cave. I got to see the whip scorpion today, which is my new favorite species. I will have pictures to come of that. We saw the large darker colored whip scorpions and also the very light colored (white) tiny whip scorpions. I also got to see a cave spider.

Whip scorpion
Whip scorpion

After our hike Pedro (who works at the camp) found a very tiny tarantula on his shoulder. He says he thinks its a cave species because he’s never seen it before. I took detailed pictures of its eyes, back, and legs. Sophia and I are gonna call it the Little Boots Scorpion (Sophia claricus) if it is a new species.

Cave tarantula (new species?)
Cave tarantula (new species?)

We heard a fabulous talk by Boris Arevalo (the head biologist at FCD, which manages the Chiquibul). He talked about the limitations of conservation and the opportunities the Chiquibul presents.

2016, Uncategorized

Bold Choices With Ants

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Wow are my feet sore from yesterday. These blisters aren’t helping either, but we had an incredibly fun day learning about ant symbioses.

First we tested hypotheses about how the young cecropera (trumpet) trees avoid herbivory before their symbiont azteca ants colonize them. Our hypotheses ranged from chemical defense to mimicry. My group tested mimicry, which is almost certainly not how they avoid herbivory due to their very similar leaf characteristics to the adult plant.

Later in the day we looked at the development of leaf cutter ant colonies, and the fungi they farm. We dug into a 1 year old nest, a 3-5 year old nest, and a 10+ year old nest, and looked at the difference in which castes are present in the nest and how big their tunnel systems are.

The 10+ year nest was huge and there were soldiers coming out of it in swarms trying to bite us. I was incredibly glad for the rubber boots at that moment, although I still got a bite from a soldier on my finger as I was taking an ant off of Scott.

I didn’t see very many arachnids today because we were mostly focusing on looking for ants and ant nests. I will look for some tomorrow at night when we can see their eyeshine.

2016

Ow

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This morning started out so promising when we saw some Scarlett Macaws. Things went downhill (and uphill and downhill and up some larger hills) from there.

Today we set up camera traps to answer our question “what is the impact of human pathways on local species composition and richness in Chiquibul Forest?” We will look specifically at roads and pathways vs. natural clearings. We had 12 camera traps to set up and we were very ambitious in how far away we wanted to put each camera from one another. Our hike lasted all day (with a short break for lunch and bandages at 3), and we hiked a total of 13.47 miles (and apparently some 120 flights of stairs according to Adrienne’s fitbit).


During the hike I saw thousands of arachnids scurrying underfoot, and one huge wolf spider (about 3 in including its legs). We also became very acquainted with our new best friend: the tick. I pulled about 5 or 6 off of myself before dinner.

Elaborate spider web along the trail.
Elaborate spider web along the trail.

During the hike, my feet started killing me around 12pm when I realized that the pads of my heels were rubbing against my sock in a weird way. I spent the rest of the hike with moleskin sweating off of me as we hiked up to our highest point of 685 meters in elevation. We saw some fabulous long wing butterflies at the bird tower observation deck, which was our highest camera trap point.

There was much sweat and pain, so I certainly hope we get something good from these camera traps. Next stop: ant experiments.

2016

The Day I Became Indiana Jones

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Today began the summer I was hoping I would have. We went to the archaeological ruins of Caracol, which was a Mayan city-state from 30BC till 1100AD. The ruins were amazing. We hiked to top of the tallest building in Belize, and got to look out over the canopy and the ruins. It was beautiful and we saw some amazing things including a weird desiccated mollusk, oropendula birds (computer birds commonly because of the crazy weird computer glitch sound they make when they call), and a lot of very large Mayan stone stairs.

On top of Caracol (the largest manmade structure in Belize) with Adrienne.
On top of Caracol (the largest manmade structure in Belize) with Adrienne.

I saw a golden silk spider. It was slightly smaller than they can get and had a web were several other spiders were also building their own webs. I saw several tarantula holes as well. The highlight of the arachnid sightings, however, was definitely the slender brown scorpion someone found in the men’s bathroom by the picnic tables. It had venom dripping out of its stinger!DSCN0859

(Golden silk weaver)

After the ruins we drove back toward the Rio On pools with the intention of swimming after the incredible heat at Caracol. However, our van had other plans. Its transmission was acting funny and it was unhappy in every gear the driver put it in, so we stopped at the Tapir military check point (barely making it there even) and checked the transmission. There was no transmission fluid in the van at all, and it was definitely not going to make it to the pools, much less to the pools and then back to Las Cuevas. Instead, we all piled our bags into the back of two pickup trucks with us sitting inside the trucks and on top of the bags. I, of course, opted to be in the back of the truck for the ensuing bumpy ride to the station.

I learned a very cool trick for finding spiders at night which lead me to find hundreds of wolf spiders and a few red rump tarantulas. If you shine your headlamp you can see their eyes in the dark reflecting back with yellow iridescence.

Coaxing a red rump tarantula out of its hole
Coaxing a red rump tarantula out of its hole

My hair is now a very crusty texture due to all the dust and sweat from the day, and I did not bring shampoo. It’s shaping up to be one of the best summers of my life.

2016

Travel and Introductions

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Hi loved ones, I’m alive and well. I’m sitting in my humid sticky bedroom recounting the excitement (good and bad) of the day in my head. It started out on a pretty bad note honestly.

We got to Hobby airport and there had been a power outage resulting in no water in the entire airport: no working bathrooms, no working water fountains, and no food except what was left in the shiny cold food sections that no one ever touches, but were suddenly the bell of the ball. I bought some snacks and the largest water bottle I could find and hoped they would hold me over till dinner which was scheduled to be >6 hours later.

Once we got to Belize though, I remembered why it was that I was here. The air was humid, the houses along the road were colorful and falling apart, the bumpy 2 hour van ride let us see the countryside from Belize City to Belmopan. I loved it.

The rest of the day had its ups and downs. The van barely had air conditioning and we were all 16 of us stuffed into a van made to seat 8 semi-comfortably. When we stopped for snacks though, the day took a turn for the better. Adrienne bought me a birthday snack of a slightly disturbing tamarind flavored crazy hair pushup pop and some truly fabulous birthday sunglasses.

We learned about the forest canopy, trees, and epiphytes after a lovely dinner of chicken and rice. But after presentations was when the fun truly started. I found a spider about an inch in length including its legs. It was visibly hairy and a dark grey/black color with very few markings on its body. I didn’t get a great look at it because it was very skittish, but I got some pictures, which will hopefully (internet allowing) be attached to this post.

DSCN0834

The most exciting part of the day by far though, was the fabulous siting of an 8 ft. boa constrictor in a tree across from the porch where we had eaten dinner. It was super active and looked to be hunting. I’m so happy that I’ve already gotten to see some fun things, and it’s been barely half a day. I’m excited for what tomorrow will bring, and also so desperately in need of sleep. Till tomorrow!

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Leaving in 5 days already?!?

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As excited as I’ve been about this trip all semester, it has never seemed fully real until this week.

In preparation, I have procured all the appropriate equipment, including two different kinds of bugspray because I was concerned in the store that one might not work. I’ve spent the last few weeks finishing up the book: A Natural History of Belize: Inside the Maya Forest, and researching arachnids and molluscs.

There’s only so much a book or the internet can teach you, however, and I’m very excited about the opportunity to see first hand all the diversity I’ve read about. I’m especially excited to be able to see and learn about first hand how the medium level of disturbance that the Chiquibul (and all the forests of Belize) experience leads to more biodiversity and the growth of species that would normally be outcompeted.

I also want to understand first hand how the spiders who do not use webs hunt. The Wolf Spider and the Fishing Spider specifically seem really interesting, and I hope to get to see them in action.

I’m nervous about being on the constant look out for dangerous snakes or bugs. I’ve spent a fair amount of time in the tropics (in Belize itself and also in neighboring countries in Central and South America), and the one thing I’ve noticed the most is that you have to maintain a constant level of respect for the potential dangers around you in order to keep yourself alert and safe. The cryptic nature of the snakes and arthropods in the jungle make it extra important to stay alert in this environment.

Admittedly, though, the thing I’m most worried about is being eaten alive by mosquitos and other biting insects. Mosquitos seem to love me, so I’m hoping there’s other people on the trip who they also love and can distract them from me.

The jungle is one of my favorite places to be. As a kid my parents took me to some amazing places including Belize, and I loved the feeling that the jungle has. It feels like a completely separate world, so I’m very excited to be back in that world. The best thing about the jungle in my opinion is the respect it commands, and how small the trees and noise can make you feel.

I’m also really excited about the possibility of seeing some really cool fauna.

And I will be detailing all my exciting experiences here whenever we have internet.