Hello again. We just got back from our night hike, and it was quite lovely. Although we didn’t see a snake, we did smell some sort of big cat where some people had heard cat sounds before, so we think there’s a puma or ocelot around. I really hope our camera traps get a picture. We also saw a few cool bugs. We found lots of moths, but it was difficult for me to identify them or get a good picture because they are moving so fast. Sadhana got a picture of a really big one, so I plan to ID it later. Another cool bug we saw was a weevil. I covered weevils in my presentation today on plant insect interactions in the tropics, so it was nice to see one out in the field.

Earlier in the day, we saw another example of an insect plant mutualism from my presentation, which is leaf cutter ants! We excavated a young mound first and found the fungal garden and the queen. This mutualism is so cool because despite leaf cutter ants being known for their ability to cut and carry leaves, these leaves are actually to feed the fungus that they maintain in their own garden of sorts. As fungivores, these leaves fungus is their source of food. The queen that we saw started her nest by taking a piece of fungus from her origin nest, initiating a mating flight, and then finding a new spot to start laying eggs for her colony. The success rate of these new colonies are low, but they can be maintained for dozens of years, like the next mound that we excavated to find the fungal garden, which was ENORMOUS. I was really nervous about how we were standing right in the midst of all these giant, angry ants with giant mandibles, but the boots did a great job at keeping us safe.

While not a mutualism, my favorite part of the day was finding a stick bug friend that hung around with us for a little bit. His names is Stella, and he seemed to enjoy crawling up and down our faces and backs.