After breakfast today, we designed a study to test arthropod diversity and nutrient levels on the forest floor and in the forest canopy. We placed pee and water filled vials on the trees and on the ground in order to create pitfalls for the arthropods. I saw a Blue Morpho butterfly while placing my vials.

After lunch, we did the infamous leaf cutter ant colony excavation. We looked at colonies that were 1, 5, and 10 years old. It was super interesting to see how the ant colonies changed as they matured. The year-old colony was very small and had very few soldier ants. As the colonies matured, more soldier ants appeared and the fungus colonies got bigger and bigger.

We dug up ant colonies until about an hour before dinner and played card game in our free time. Then, we completed our presentations for the night. After the presentations, I saw another Smilisca baudinii (Mexican treefrog). This one had a very dark coloration.

After dinner, a small group of us went on a tarantula hunting adventure. There are a lot of spiders located in the clearing around the station. We saw a Red Rump tarantula and a Livingston Stony tarantula. We learned how to draw the tarantulas out of their hole. While we were searching, we saw large glistening eyes on the edge of the clearing. As we got closer, we discovered that it was a bird, Pauraque, roosting on the ground.