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Caroline Chaboo

 

Caroline Chaboo, curator, focuses on the biology, behavior and systematics of chrysomelid leaf beetles.

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Students taking notes about a dinosaur skeleton at the Museo de Historia Natural in Lima, Peru.

Graduate students work with the curators to set up the insect traps, collect specimens and process them for shipping.

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Entrance to the Museo de Historia Natural

This is one of the traps we use to collect insects.

During the 2010 expedition, when it was unseasonably cold, bats flew into the lab space and roosted under the lab benches.

This is the view of the Amazon jungle from the river as we headed to our research field camp.

In the summer of 2010, KU entomologist Caroline Chaboo conducted a collections and research expedition with several graduate students in the Amazon rainforest of Peru. Professor Chaboo is conducting a similar expedition in 2011.

One of the interesting aspects of field research is having the opportunity to experience the culture of the community and the country we visit. For our varied group on the Peru trip, we are going to see places in Lima such as cathedrals, monasteries, museums and historic centers. But while we are there, something else will be happening: a presidential election. In Peru, it's mandatory to vote, so on voting day, most everything in Lima closes as 9 million people try to get around town to vote.

I specialize in chrysomelid leaf beetles. Chrysomelidae (about 40,000 species) forms one of the largest radiations of animals, and they present many interesting research problems. My approach is holistic, with extensive fieldwork to explore life histories, ecology, behavior, and laboratory study of morphology and molecules.

One of the things that I forget when getting ready for an expedition is how much I have learned about field research in the past and how much there is to learn if you are new to fieldwork. I'm not just speaking of learning field collection methods or processing insects in our field lab station. When you are going on your first expedition experience, you don't know what gear to bring. What will the weather be like? What shoes are best in the muggy Amazon rain forest? What socks should you bring? What will best carry it all from Kansas to Lima to the field station and back?

In June 2011, a team of eight University of Kansas students and two professors will participate in a unique interdisciplinary expedition to Peru. Unlike many Biodiversity Institute expeditions, this one brings together people from several backgrounds, among them entomology, ecology, English language history, journalism, graphic novels, and art. Join the group through this website as they learn field methods, experience the varied cultural landscape of Peru, and explore the Amazon rain forest at the Los Amigos Biological Research Station.