Tag Archives: cecropia trees

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The Ant-Man Super Bowl: Leafcutter Nest Excavation

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May 20, 2025
Hello again! As you can tell from the title, today was yet another amazing day at Las Cuevas Research Station. The day began with some light birdwatching, during which we saw some flying macaws, a toucan, and a Northern Mealy Amazon parrot. These were very cool to see!
Our morning and half of the afternoon was filled with finishing up the Cecropia experiment and listening to presentations. Before I get into what we did with the second part of the afternoon, I’ll illustrate the results of our experiment. As you can see from the poster below, the question “was how do young cecropia trees defend themselves if they’re not colonized and protected by a colony of Azteca ants?” Unfortunately, our results were inconclusive. Due to limitations on time, we weren’t able to catch Orthoptera herbivores of the same species, so that factor was not standard, and we also had the problem of hydration of the leaves (we can’t know if the leaves were absorbing water, or how much they had at the time oof weighing, because we are in a field station with only one afternoon and one morning to devote to this project.) So, the results were inconclusive, but you can read our poster pictured below. (The poster was a collaborative effort; if you know me, you know that’s not my handwriting.) After the project was over, we had a presentation from the Rafael Manzanero, director of the Friends for Conservation and Development, which is a really cool Belizean NGO that manages the LCRS, Chiquibul National Park and Forest Reserve, and they defend it. They have armed rangers, filling the role that the government plays in the US. It was very interesting to hear from him. After that, I gave my Ants Taxon Briefing, Lily gave hers on Epiphytes, and Dyllan talked about plant-insect interactions. During those presentation, we also heard from Yasmini Manzanero, the FCD’s Cultural Heritage and Karst Expert, and she briefed us on the cave system we are to explore tomorrow.
After those presentations, we had the ant-man Super Bowl: we excavated leafcutter ant nests to find their fungal garden. This was truly exciting. First, we approached the young colony (~1 year in age, 1 entrance) which is in the clearing right next to Jane’s (LCRS Manager) cabin. This is an optimal location for a Leafcutter colony because they like forest edges. The edges provide easy access to fresh vegetation for their fungus, while also providing the queen easy access to get into the ground quickly. We began our excavation by digging next to the colony, because fungal gardens (which is where the queen is) aren’t usually underneath the colony entrance, but they’re off to the side. Excavating this way minimizes damage to the colony’s structure and garden. This was so fun, because Dr. Solomon pulled out the entire fungal garden on a large kitchen spoon. With the whole garden came the queen, which was also awesome to see. She was so huge, because she has to store her sperm for up to 20-25 years and she also has to store her fungus when she leaves the colony she’s from, so she had a lot going on. It was super cool to see her.
Once we had thoroughly explored the young colony, we approached the mature colony. The mature colony was ~x years old and had many entrances. We selected this mature colony because it was raised, meaning the fungal gardens would be easier to access. This colony presented a problem though: the many hundreds and thousands of soldier ants that swarmed as we excavated. This meant that everyone had to put their things far away, and continually stomp soldier ants off their boots so they didn’t chew through them. As the ant-man, I was excited to see the horde of ants flowing out of the nest like a mighty stream and I grabbed the shovel. I was mostly successful, but I did get one battle wound. This was quite a different wound, as it hurt in the moment but it faded quickly. It also bled a lot, which was concerning (and turned my stomach bc I do not like blood very much) but that also subsided quickly. All in all, it was a great ant-super bowl and I’m super proud to have been a part of the excavating. After the wounds, we found the fungus. This fungus was interesting because a) there was much more of it, naturally, and b) It had a different texture than the fungus of the young colony. I’d be interested to compare them in a lab.
Following dinner, we had our first night hike. We saw a rare Pauroque bird (one of the “heard not seen” birds,) but the coolest thing we saw was the leafcutter ant highway. During the day, you see a couple or even a steady stream of ants flowing on these highways. At night, this highway was PACKED. It probably looked like the Katy Freeway when they brought 45, 90, and 180 to Rice. It is pictured below.
Images:
Cecropia Experiment Poster (if you have seen me write, you know that I did not write this. It was a collaborative effort.)
Battle wound from Excavation of Mature Colony (Got bit by Soldier Atta cephalotes)
Young Colony’s Fungal Garden
Ant Highway During Night Hike
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Day 4: Poaching and Logging

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Last night was cockroach-mania in my bedroom. We accidentally left the light on while showering/listening to lectures and ended up attracting a cacophony of cockroaches. Although I have been hoping to spot more of the little creatures, seeing three crawl out of my pillowcase was not the grand introduction I expected. Nevertheless, we persevered. Many of them appeared to be German Cockroaches (Blattella germanica) under the glow of my flashlight. I think a few of them may have been brown-banded roaches (Supella longipalpa), and a few others were likely the Smokybrown cockroach (Periplaneta fuliginosa), as they were significantly bigger than the others. Many of them were quite little, and I believe they were not full-grown, but still in the nymph stage of development.

This morning’s activity was quite different from yesterday’s, as it involved each of our urine being placed out in viles in hopes of trapping invertebrates. We called back on the knowledge we gained from the previous lectures on canopy life and tropic soil in an effort to better understand the question: how does the structure of the forest impact Nitrogen availability in invertebrates? In order to observe both the abundance and richness of species and see how nitrogen-limited invertebrates are up in the canopy compared to the forest floor, we utilized pitfall traps. Our hypothesis was that the forest floor may demonstrate a greater abundance in the Nitrogen pitfall trap than the canopy, and that in the canopy there would be a greater visible difference between the Nitrogen and water pitfall traps. Our methods involved each student placing 4 viles in the rainforest. Each person tied two viles to a tree: one with urine (a Nitrogen-heavy substance), the other one with water; and digging two holes with a trowel near the tree to place counterpart urine and water viles. My tree was over a tarantula den, which was a bit less than desirable for an activity which involved kneeling and digging into the ground for several minutes! In a couple of days, we will return to our viles and collect them to measure the invertebrates collected in each.

After a lunch of fried chicken and veggie rice, we turned to a study of plant-animal interactions. Specifically, the relationship between cecropia trees and ants. These two organisms have a special, co-evolved relationship, as the trees provide a perfect, compartmentalized home for the ants complete with nutrition in exchange for the ants’ defense. Our study aims to understand whether there is a difference in the tree’s defense mechanisms pre vs post-ant colonization. To do this, we decided to go directly to the source and ask herbivores themselves. We collected samples from two different cecropia trees (one with an ant colony and one without), measured the leaves using a penetrometer and scale, and placed the leaves in containers with a few different Orthoptera species: crickets, grasshoppers, and katydids. Tomorrow morning, we will return to this study and note the eating patterns in the cecropia trees without an ant colony and those with an ant colony.

The hike to collect these cecropia samples was packed-full of fun and creepy creatures! Notably, a scorpion, the molten skin of a tarantula, and two cute leaf-cutter bugs sharing a drink of tree juice. Honestly, it made me quite sad to see the ant colony flee from their home when we chopped down the cecropia tree (hence my title for today). I wished that there had been another way to go about the experiment, and it was hard to watch them grab the larvae and run from their tree, knowing they would all die quite soon. The tarantula under the tree was also carring an egg sack and I can only hope that her fate is somewhat better than the poor ants.

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Dinner was absolutely delicious and tonight’s lectures featured beetles, amphibians, and the Chiquibul cave system! I learned that the Chiquibul cave system is composed of carbonate limestone deposits dating back to 200 million years ago. Many of the cave creatures we may encounter on our expedition have quite uniquely adapted features to life in the dark such as rudimentary/absent eyes, specialized secondary organs, a lack of pigmentation, and modified appendages. I think I am most excited for our day in the caves, and am truly looking forward to spotting many of the subterranean species that dwell there.

It is really hard to believe we’ve only spent two full days in the rainforest so far. I hope to wake up early for bird watching tomorrow morning and spot some of the iconic colorful feathers that help define jungle biodiversity.

-Emily

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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.