Hi!

Today was a pretty chill day. We collected our pitfall traps from yesterday and analyzed the data from them. We had set up the pitfall traps to try and determine whether there is a difference in arthropod diversity between the forest floor and the canopy, and whether a difference is linked to nitrogen limitation. Rainforests are incredibly diverse but nutrient-poor. We ultimately did find a difference: we found way more arthropods in our traps from the forest floor and more arthropods in nitrogen-enriched traps (don’t ask what we used).

While collecting the pitfall traps, we stumbled upon our only reptile sighting of the day: a Lesser Scaly Anole (Anolis uniformis)! We were actually looking down a cave hole for some bats when all of the sudden I looked up and there was a lizard sitting on one of the posts marking the hole. Crazy how we were making so much noise and taking photos with flash and the lizard was just chilling there. It sat incredibly still and nice for pictures and was still sitting there when we passed that spot on the way back to the station after getting all the traps. The second time around I tried to catch it, but it jumped away.

Tomorrow we’re apparently doing something mysterious with ants…

-Kelsey