Butterflies! (aka pilot studies)

So today was our first day of experimentation in the rainforest. Our first field site is called "Pipe Line Road" and is in Soberania National Park (9º10’N, 79º45’W). It is our intermediate moisture site, which we will be contrasting with wet and dry forests. Immediately upon walking past the gate we encountered a white-nosed coati (Nasua narica). Unfortunately I could get a picture because my camera was in my pack as my hands were full with my butterfly net and notebook! We also heard howler monkeys throughout the day, but didn't actually see any.

Pipeline road bridge, a good site for butterflies.

I spent most of the day (8:30 AM - 2:30 PM) chasing after butterflies. I promise you I looked absolutely ridiculous. If you've ever seen a dog or a cat chasing it's tail, you'll have a good picture of me turning circles and running down the trail with arms flailing trying to catch butterflies. Even when they are flying right around me they are hard to catch, but oftentimes they were at least 5 meters off the ground and sometimes amongst the vegetation, making it impossible to catch. But you never know if it'll dip down into reach unless you try. The most striking butterflies are a gorgeous iridescent blue and at least hand-sized (genus Morpho); they have a particularly annoying tendency to fly straight down the path flitting up and down just over one's head! It was certainly rather discouraging at first, but over the course of the day I started to get the hang of it a little better. I managed to catch 8 specimens today, and collected 5 of them to identify.

My first identified specimen (Janatella leucodesma)

As I was walking along the trail looking for Lepidoptera, I noticed that they seemed to emerge when the sun was shining. I also noticed that several individuals of one type were clustered around a particular flower. My experiment is going to consist, therefore, of finding more and less open sites, assessing the degree of cloud cover, both with and without flowers, and both observing and collecting specimens. First, I will spend 15 minutes observing how many--and of what color and size--butterflies are in an area. Next, I will spend 15 minutes running around in circles trying to catch as many as possible to identify, measure, and photograph! (After which, I predict collapsing on my bed...after a shower...)