We started a study where we wanted to see how arthropod abundance compares on the forest floor vs canopy and what this has to do with nutrients like nitrogen. To do this, we set out bug traps in the ground and in trees some with water and some with “nutrients” (the nutrients happen to be yellow). 

While we were hiking out we saw a jumping pit viper right in the middle of the path! While we were still taking pictures and admiring it, we spotted a small eyelash viper (yes it has eyelashes)  curled up on a log nearby! This was the first time even the station staff who had been here for 12 years had seen one! We also saw a zombie moth that had had a fungi take over its nervous system so that it went and sat in a suitable spot for the fungus to grow out of its body. 

In the afternoon we excavated some leaf cutter ant nests to see the fungal gardens that they feed their leaves to. The fungus looked like a grey fuzzy honeycomb, and we also found the queen who had birthed the whole colony. She was the size of my thumb and had ants running along her back. There were also soldier ants with powerful bites that could draw blood if you tried to pick them up.

While we excavating we found the most ridiculous animal: a Mexican burrowing toad. It was litterally like a squishy, jiggly, amorphous water-ballon pancake with a nose, eyes, and legs stuck onto it. It was black with red spots and burrowed backwards into the mud!

I also saw a surinam cockroach (pyconscelus surinamensis). It was shiny almost golden brown with a jet black head covering with a white stripe on it. It was also very speedy as it ran over our hands!