The end of an era!
It's hard to believe my field work ended today! I let the last of my little babies go : (
Let's not pretend like I won't still go out and enjoy myself in the jungle... I just won't be catching lizards for science anymore.
Walking around in the jungle makes me feel like a kid again. Or how I imagined I was as a youngin'. Kids can just phase out and stare at bugs or leaves of grass.
Somewhere along the line I guess I got too wrapped up in paying bills, or getting good grades, or going on that next vacation.
I love the jungle because I can get lost right outside the office door. You can't go a meter into the jungle without finding something awesome!
Nephila clavipes (Golden Orb Weaver) I'll be the first to admit I used to be terrified of big spiders. These are actually really mellow though. I hear you can hold one without it biting you...not gonna test that theory.
If you look close there's a lot going on. First, look at the web, especially the color, and you'll see why they're called 'Golden Orb Weaver'. Second, she's got a prey item in her fangs. Sometimes butterflies with mild toxins will get caught in their webs. The spiders can recognize them and then free them from the web. Third, and you might have to look a little closer, there's a tiny little spider just above her abdomen. That's not a baby or a smaller type of spider. That's the male of the species!
He may be tiny but he's no dummy. He lives on the outside of the web and eats scraps of food when the female isn't looking. She's so hungry she'd eat him if he got too close. This time though, he saw that she was busy with her prey item so he took the opportunity to slinker on over and mate with her.
If he doesn't wait for her to be preoccupied or full there's a pretty good chance he'd get eaten before he ever got the chance to mate.
"Hell hath no fury..."
Pretty wild stuff!
It's been stormy every night the past week which makes some really cool foggy mornings over the river.
Sometimes it's hard to make it to breakfast in time when you have to walk across the bridge and not become consumed with this:
It's definetly the best spot to bird too. Most of the jungle canopy is so thick that only the smaller birds that fly below the canopy can be seen. From the bridge I've seen everything from parquets, toucans, parrots to herons!
If you're bored of these pictures yet, I'll clump them together so you can scroll right through.
Mandatory cool moth photos!
Admittedly I'm not sure if these are even moths. One looks like it's made of blue cheese and other is almost neon green... that's enough for me.
I had an amazing opportunity today, something that hasn't happened (reptile/amphibian wise) in a while.
I found a new order!
It goes: Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species.
No. It's not just a little earthworm. Much like every other thing in the jungle you need to take a closer look at anything to get a good idea of what you're working with.
Gymnopis multiplicata (Purple Caecilian) It's domain is eukaryota (multi-cellular), kingdom - animalia (mammals, birds, insects, etc.), phylum - chordata (backbone, spinal cord, and some other silly characteristics), class - amphibia (salamanders, frogs, etc.), order - gymnophiona...
These things are awesome. They live mostly underground so they have degenerate eyes, meaning we don't think they do much but see shadows anymore. They also have these special light-sensitive organs on their tails that aren't on any other type of vertebrate! Since they live underground they're hard to study and not much is known about them.
I'm floating on cloud 9 from finally seeing one!
I also was fortunate enough to see a new type of snake tonight.
Corallus annulatus (Annulated Tree Boa) Unlike the other tree boa I found, this one has a very mottled stomach. It's also very secretive and not normally seen. It was a beautiful animal. Unfortunately my hands were full so I had to trust a tourist to get a photo. Little biter tried his best to get me, but you can see from the spots on my hands his bark was a lot worse than his bite.
Sorry snakey, you can't have it all.
Returning my very last set of lizards (Stream Anoles) to the stream tonight I was given another gracious gift from the jungle.
One of my old study species just couldn't stay away and dropped in to say hello (literally jumped on my arm).
Agalychnis callidryas (Red- Eyed Tree Frog) Clearly a favorite. I don't know how anything so precious ever came into existence, but if I could just hang out with these for 8 hours a day for work, I'd be: a) pretty pumped and b) probably not very productive.
It was so hard to walk away from this little guy.
I want one!
Tomorrow it's official. Crunch time begins and I need to be able to knock this paper out of the park.
Realistically it won't be 'publishable' manuscript per se. Not yet anyway. It's a great way to make sure we follow through with what we started though.
Sometimes the whole publication process can take years.
With all the work I've put into this thing though, it feels like I have to do my best to make sure it sees the light of day.
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