I had a rough night of sleep between rainforest bug sounds and some intermittent whooping, but I got breakfast at 7:00am as usual. The class discussed an experiment testing nitrogen limitation in the forest canopy versus nitrogen limitation on the forest floor using arthropods and pit fall traps, then we set up pit fall traps along the Maya Trail using water and our own urine.

Some cool, miscellaneous things observed on the hike:

-Blue Morphos spotted: 7

-I found a beehive. They are aggressive.

-We saw a cave entrance in the rainforest trail and summoned bats by kissing the back of our hands!

-zombie ants

-I caught a tiger longwing (Heliconius hecale)! (Mid-flight! I jumped to catch it!)

Tiger Longwing, Heliconius hecale

After lunch, the class visited the entrance to a nearby cave and saw the cenote from which Las Cuevas Research Station draws its water. While in the cave, I gave a lecture on the taxon Lepidoptera while the rest of the class listened and sat in bat guano. Then, Anna presented on Orthoptera and Pierce presented on Life in the Dark.

Class descending into cave near Las Cuevas Research Station

During the night hike, the class observed a different set of species from the set that we normally see during the day. I observed many moth species (such as the sphinx moth) instead of butterflies—however, the most exciting moth to see was the black witch moth (Ascalapha odorata). This bat-shaped beauty I found had a wingspan of about 15 centimeters (the black witch moth can grow up to about 17cm in terms of wingspan). While moths usually lack in vibrant coloration, the black witch moth had characteristic hints of iridescent purple and pink in the bands along the margin of the wings. Additionally, I observed that the moth had the characteristic 9 or comma shaped markings along the top middle of the forewings with an orange outline. I also held a stick bug, and a cockroach with a glue butt (his name is Elmer). Elmer was an astounding 6cm in length and hissed when touched, but overall a very friendly cockroach that crawled up my arm, my neck, my head, and left some of his butt glue in my hair.  I am excited to see what animal friends I can make tomorrow!

Black Witch Moth, Ascalapha odorata