| The mosquitoes are getting out of control. Walking through parts of the wetland, I litterally have difficulty seeing my feet, not because they are underwater, but because there are thousands of freshly emerged mosquitoes dodging my boots.
It seems that this is the second generation of mosquitoes, with the first potentially being left-overs from the dry season. It’ll be interesting, to say the least, to experience the exponential growth. |
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Category Archives: Macro
Neotropical rattlesnake
After capturing this rattlesnake, Boa fed it a mouse, which it recently released as a brown, moist mush that appears to have permanently stained the bucket it was in with a horrible stench. The snake is a juvenile, and didn’t even have any rattle segments. It is the only one we’ve seen so far.
Long-tailed snake
I’m not certain about the common name in that (1) my source (the Internet) isn’t really reliable and (2) there was nothing long about this snake. (Don’t look into ‘2’ too much)
Rolling, Rolling, Rolling
Two dung beetles rolled their ball of delicious fecal matter into between the buttresses of a tree. One appeared to begin searching for a hole that had been made previously, while the other waited.
I learned a little about depth of field with my camera today… so maybe next time, both dung beetles will be in focus.
Invading army ants
At the Catalina sector wetland, a group from Clemson and I discovered a stream of army ants (Eciton burchellii; I think) that had fanned out into a raiding swarm at one end. There were hundreds of hidden cockroaches, crickets, hemipterans and other insects fleeing the area that was being scavenged by the ants. A few insects appeared not to be bothered by the biting, stinging formacids, and soon became prey. We watched the wasp pictured here go from freely sitting on a leaf to being completely dismantled with little or no reaction by the wasp. The other picture is one of the soldier ants that was provoked by myself and others. At first I laughed at her futile attempt to protect her sisters, until I realized that she was merely distracting me with a pose while several others climbed up my camera strap…
Just a juvenile
This is a monsterous juvenile bug. It’s about the size of a half dollar, or large 20 colone coin if you’re a Tico.
Sap sucker
Look at the length of the proboscis on this guy!
Crickets are just as abundant
Another macro shot of another insect grazer (or detritivore). There are so many crickets hiding under decomposing cattail (Typha domingensis) and other wetland plants, that you can literally hear them scurry as you pass a clump of detritus. When I first heard the noise, I thought it was the constant, strong wind from the east. After hearing the noise without wind, I thought it may be a snake or other herp (that’s actually how I found the turtle here; I heard it walking) and was immediately excited to discover a new species… I did alright, hundreds of crickets of various species. Unfortunately, I don’t have The Orthoptera of Costa Rica: A Jumping Insect between Two Continents, between Two Seas.
So, what are they eating? Dr. Lorch?!
Diploglossus bilobates
Although it’s not the greatest photograph, I wanted to share an image of a skink we caught in San Ramón since the lizard’s coloration and patterning were pretty awesome. I picked it up shortly after taking this photograph and was promptly bitten… first skink bite for me.
Dangling caterpillar
Frozen, an appendage covered caterpillar attempts to hide from my camera.