Tag Archives: moth

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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