In the spirit of a true field course, today we set pit fall traps with our own urine. We are trying to test the differences in needs for nitrogen in Arthropods based on forest layers. We didn’t do too much hiking today, but I guess today was a bit more taxing on our mental strength than our physical.

Wrapping up our herbivory preference trials from yesterday, we found inconclusive results in terms of the presence of chemical defense in young Cecropia trees. This result was fairly expected based upon the small sample size, but in some cases I was a bit shocked. Six of the eight herbivores used(one caterpillar, one beetle, six orthoptera) did not consume any foliage. I had expected to see more bite marks on the leaves I suppose.

While we did not hike much today [so not many Lepidoptera sighting chances], I did still see Lepidoptera. When we went on the trail around the archeological sites at the research station to set our pit fall traps, I saw some butterfly. I mostly saw small brush-footed. I keep seeing one that’s about 6 cm in wingspan and it white with black markings and I am just not completely sure which it is. A classmate who is particularly skilled with the butterfly net managed to catch one of the fast flying teal and black swallowtails. I did not try with the net today but I managed to catch a moth in my room last night. It is  not listed in the additional field guide I have so I am not sure what it was. About 2 cm in wingspan, it was yellow and brown to the point it was almost colorful.

Tomorrow we will have to collect the traps, but we will also get to hear another guest lecture from one of the researchers at the station. We heard a presentation tonight focused on the area that we are staying in. I’m glad we are getting to learn more about the Chiquibul forest and I feel I’m starting to feel a bit more at ease with the constant animal and forest noises I don’t usually hear in the city.