Tag Archives: butterfly

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20/05/19 Goodbye Las Cuevas!

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Today is sadly our last day in the rainforest, but I am excited for the reef!

This morning the class again made the strenuous 8-mile journey down the trail along the right side of the 50-hectare plot, then the Monkey Tail Trail. We retrieved the 7 camera traps that we had set up along that path on our first day in the rainforest.  The class completed the whole trek before lunch while on the first day we took the whole morning (then lunch) and part of the afternoon. We definitely hiked at a faster pace, which made the journey a little harder. Along the Monkey Tail Trail, the class hiked faster in part because we did not want to give the ticks (hidden in the tall brush) the time to fall onto us and suck our blood.

I observed 3 blue morphos, but felt less compelled to catch them since my task had already been completed. I am at peace now. Out of the 3 blue morphos, 2 were spotted together and 1 alone. It seems strange to me that we have observed the blue morphos in pairs (At least 3 times over the course of our time in the rainforest) as they are supposedly solitary creatures. Either way, I appreciate every opportunity I get to see these iconic rainforest beauties.

That afternoon, the class went out to observe leafcutter ant/fungus obligate mutualism firsthand. First, Scott tried to excavate a younger nest in the clearing and find the fungus chamber, but was unsuccessful. Then, we found a HUMONGOUS ant colony along the Monkey Tail Trail—so large that it was almost the equivalent of a small hill that the entire class could stand upon. Scott managed to find the fungus chamber fairly quickly and grabbed a portion of the fungus for us to examine up close. Soldier ants came pouring out (as to be expected), and they were huge and aggressive. Amanda was bitten by one of these soldier ants and, in the process, it tore a small chunk out of her pants. Scott said that, given enough time, these ants could chew through our rubber boots. I am not going to test this claim out.

 

Excavation of small leafcutter ant colony

The class ended the night with lectures on the geographical and biogeographic history of Central American and the Caribbean and mammals. After the lectures came the exciting part—looking through camera trap pictures. In total, we captured 2 curssows, 2 unknown birds, 1 possum, 1 skunk, 1 tapir!, and 1 unknown earred animal. The camera that I adopted (its name is Rice 2) caught  a picture of a male curssow and a stunning picture of a tapir (I am so proud!). The picture is so clear that you can see the enormous size of its whole body as it walks along the trail. Probably the best photo of the lot! Another interesting capture was a photo of an unknown earred animal. The animal had gotten too close to the camera, and the flash saturated the facial features of the animal, but we were able to distinguish the shape of the ears and some fur, leading us to believe that the animal was a puma. It is frustrating that we cannot confirm this. Either way, a great and successful ending to an exciting week full of new experiences. Thank you Las Cuevas Research Station!

Tapir caught on Rice 2 camera trap!

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19/05/19 I finally caught a blue Morpho.

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6:00am breakfast as usual. In the morning, the class hiked up the Maya Trail to examine an area disturbed by a hurricane a few years ago. The damage was apparent in the tree fall, but also in the difference in species composition between the disturbed and undisturbed areas of the rainforest—most notably, cecropia trees inhabited the disturbed areas abundantly, but not the undisturbed areas. The class surveyed plant species in both disturbed and undisturbed areas of the rainforest along the Maya Trail.

On an exciting note, I finally caught a blue Morpho! The butterfly made the mistake of settling on a leaf too close to me and not darting away while it had the chance, thinking that its leaf-like underside camouflage would save it. This bad boy was rather large at a wingspan of around 13 cm (blue morphos can reach a wingspan of 20cm). These iconic rainforest species have an easily recognizable iridescent blue topside, but with wings closed (as butterflies have the tendency to perch), the brown underside with eyespots blends into the butterfly’s surroundings. Blue morphos are also incredibly adept flyers, making them difficult to catch both in flight and not.

Blue Morpho, Morpho peleides

That afternoon, the class returned to the hurricane-disturbed area along the Maya Trail to examine firsthand the ant-plant mutualism between cecropia trees and the Azteca Ants that inhabit and defend them.

That night, the class hiked up the PAINfully steep bird tower trail to the bird tower. Although the hike was hard and the sky was cloudy, the stunningly beautiful view from the bird tower was unparalleled. The class spent over an hour at the bird tower until the sun began to set. I sat with my feet dangling off of the edge of the bird tower and enjoyed the breeze. We returned to the research station in the dark, and the downhill hike back was much easier. We saw a cave, and nearly stepped on a jumping pit viper, and at one point we all turned off our headlamps and (surrounded by darkness) just listened to the rainforest sounds.

(From left to right) Keegan, Cassia, Michael, Me on top of the bird tower

The class ended the day with lectures on fungus, reptiles, beetles, and a lecture from yours truly on tropical parasites, diseases, and medicinal plants.

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18/05/19 Introducing Sunshine the Moth

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I rolled out of bed for 5:00am birding + a cup of coffee. Disclaimer: I am not a coffee-drinker, but early mornings have made it a necessity. The low, breath-like calls of the howler monkey were eerie in the pre-dawn darkness.

After breakfast, we hiked along the Maya Trail to pick up the pit fall traps that had been set up yesterday and left out for 24 hours. Along the way, I caught a butterfly with my hands (swallowtail, same coloration as those at Caracol) granted it was dead.

Swallowtail Butterfly (dead)

Some cool things observed on the hike:

– flock of green parrots that made noises like stormtrooper bullets

-toucan

-THE endangered Morelet’s tree frog! It was adorable!

Morelet’s Tree Frog, endangered species!

I managed to catch a good number of bugs in my pit fall traps—1 beetle, 6 ants total. It’s strange to think that these animals drowned to death in my urine.

We ended the day with lectures on ants, amphibians, and visual and auditory communication in rainforest animals.

Later that night, I was in bed when I was called to the restroom. A moth had fallen onto Bella’s head while she was on the toilet. It was rather large with a wingspan of around 13cm and had the coloration of a speckled yellow leaf. I removed the moth from the restroom and let it crawl around my shoulder. Although moth coloration is limited in vibrancy in comparison to butterfly coloration, I still found the yellow moth incredibly stunning. I have named it Sunshine. Sunshine kept falling off my hand and onto the wooden floor. Moths are hilariously clumsy creatures, falling off surfaces and bumping into them constantly. This may be attributed to their thick bodies. I can empathize with them as a fellow less-than-graceful creature.

Imperial Moth, Eacles imperialis

2019

17/05/19 Pit Fall Trapping

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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

2019

15/05/19 Cara-cool Ruins

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I awoke to the sound of birds (or rather, people birding). After breakfast and mourning my last hours of reliable WiFi, I loaded the van with the class to travel an hour to Rio on Pools in the Mountain Pine Range. While there, we swam, but mostly slipped, slid, and stumbled on the algae that blanketed the rocks. We also dunked our heads in waterfalls. Once dried and changed, we embarked on another hour-long  journey to the Caracol Ruins.

At the Caracol Ruins, there were many butterflies that appeared to be of the same species (a variant of swallowtail as indicated by long ‘tails’ protruding from each hindwing).  The ruins themselves were magnificent, but also a pain to climb; the steps of the ruins were so high that every time I took a step, my knees rose to my chest. It was all worth it though because now I can say that I have conquered the tallest structure in the country of Belize! Also, I stood within a tomb, which was dank, and the buttresses of a ceiba tree. After traversing the ruins, the class drove an hour to Las Cuevas Research Station, our final destination for the day.

Some other cool, miscellaneous things observed en route:

  • Mayan temple replica currently being constructed by a man who claims to be a descendant of a Mayan god
  • 3 military checkpoints, the second of which was a Dutch army base
  • carsickness 🙁

At Las Cuevas, I found and captured a butterfly in the restroom. It was sitting with its wings closed (as is the tendency of the butterfly), so I identified it as a butterfly even though the coloration (lacking in vibrancy) was more similar to a moth’s. The butterfly was tan/brown with an eyespot on each wing (forewing and hindwing, 4 eye spots total). The hindwings had significant perforations, but they were erratic in size and depth, so I believe that they were not present as a result of species-specific characteristic.

It began raining lightly (forest’s namesake weather!) Scott heard then saw a scarlet macaw.

After dinner, the class ended the night with a discussion on research question, and lectures on trees, birds, and the paradox of tropical soils.