Why Mosquitoes?

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Why mosquitoes?  Of all the amazing and beautiful rain forest animals to study, why would anyone want to work with this lowly, annoying bug that drives us crazy while sitting on porches on summer evenings?  They spread disease, too.  Why would anyone want to mess with that?

Sampling Heliconias

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My side project for this trip was to study arthropod diversity in two species of heliconia plants.  I worked on the project with Riley and Tom.  In both species we looked in leaf rolls and in inflorescences of the plant.  We unrolled the leaves and dissected the flower. It was interesting as with each opening it was exciting to see what kind of animals we would find.  We ended up seeing about 10 species repeatedly, but we had some surprises too.

Travel is Education

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By Bethany Christiansen

Plants and Fungi

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image/jpeg iconSome fungi are drab, some are charismatic. This was perhaps the brightest, biggest growth that I saw.
image/jpeg iconVines are everywhere, tangling and strangling.
image/jpeg iconUp the side of a massive tree.
image/jpeg iconA greener part of the forest floor.
image/jpeg iconjune-8-spinyfungus.jpg
image/jpeg iconjune-8-stickfungus.jpg
image/jpeg iconjune-9-curled.jpg
image/jpeg iconThe humidity is unbelievable - you sweat in buckets.
image/jpeg iconPlants using the nutrients of a fallen log.
image/jpeg iconjune-9-wrapped.jpg
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image/jpeg iconIt's a competition for light, and plants have many strategies for obtaining it. The forms are diverse.
image/jpeg iconjune-11-exhaustfungi.jpg
image/jpeg iconA downed tree.
image/jpeg iconFungi seem to grow everywhere.
image/jpeg iconjune-11-fungusburst.jpg
image/jpeg iconIt's very difficult to bring a deep image completely into focus in low light. Some photos required about 20 seconds of exposure.
image/jpeg iconjune-11-spun.jpg
image/jpeg iconPlant defenses are varied and abundant.
image/jpeg iconIt's not unusual to get snagged while trekking through the forest. Shirts, pants, and socks all fall victim to tears.
image/jpeg iconjune-11-tied.jpg
image/jpeg iconjune-12-curls2.jpg
image/jpeg iconjune-12-fungusstick.jpg
image/jpeg iconWell-lit spots provide great opportunities for photos. Not only do they illuminate plants, they also reveal spiderwebs.
image/jpeg iconjune-12-verdant.jpg
image/jpeg iconIt's impossible to photograph fungi without noticing their tendency to grow in city-looking groups.
image/jpeg iconA jumping spider (top, near left) chased and captured gnats that were attracted to this white fungus.
image/jpeg iconMost of the plants have chew marks on them - some more pronounced than others.

The abundance of plants and verdancy in the rain forest makes for interesting relationships between plants and fungi. This gallery gives a sampling of the plants and fungi of the forest. Back to Peru 2011 home page.

Light and Darkness

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image/jpeg iconFerns have a sheen that makes them very photogenic.
image/jpeg iconInsects love to sun themselves in pools of light that happen to make it to the forest floor.
image/jpeg iconChew marks on a leaf.
image/jpeg iconThe difference in appearance between dark and light spots is staggering. None of these photos have been altered for brightness.
image/jpeg iconIn some areas, the sun seems a memory. But it's nice to be in the shade when high humidity and high temperature are involved.
image/jpeg iconSometimes sunlight can create a little scene, a world within the world of the rain forest.

As I took more photos, light and darkness came to the fore. The sun hits the earth most directly at the equator, and though we were very near the equator, the group never needed sunscreen. The canopy gorges itself on sunlight. So little makes it to the forest floor that I nearly always struggled with sufficient lighting. There are many theories as to why there are so many species in the tropics, and Dr. Chaboo mentioned that the sheer amount of energy obtained through sunlight may fuel the rain forest's staggering diversity.

Gravity

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We are all now back home, having arrived on Monday, bleary-eyed. It's been a long few days, full of travel, packing, unpacking, repacking, and airport-sitting.

We woke early to catch the boat from the CICRA field station to Laberinto, then a bus to the airport, followed by a flight back to Lima. We spent a day and a half in Lima as we pleased, and then we prepared the specimens for their flight back to the U.S.

 

Sampling the Tastes of Peru

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Just prior to leaving for Peru, I was told of the exceptional cuisine that Lima had to offer.  Before, I learned about cuy (pronounced “coo-ee”) – guinea pig.  I imagined it as the staple dish that would be on the menu of every high-end Peruvian restaurant.   It’s apparently not that meal and is, in fact, an Andean animal and is served in restaurants nearer the mountains.  Instead, I’ve found that there are a lot of other amazing tastes this country has to offer.

Fortune

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My good fortune finally ran out. Up until Sunday evening I had experienced very little turbulence on this trip: the airplane flights were uneventful, in Lima I ate multiple things I probably shouldn’t have, they but didn’t cause any issues, I experienced maybe one mosquito bite, and I hadn’t suffered any physical injuries. Then Sunday night came, and I caught up on my suffering.

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