Category Archives: Gallery

Large land planarian

Under a log around the Las Alturas field station, Cristian found this predatory, land planarian. These flatworms are predators of other invertebrates, including snails and slugs, and kill their prey, more-or-less, by vomiting digestive juices onto them… then sucking up the slurry. That said, they are harmless to humans as free-living organisms, unlike many other species in the animal phylum Platyhelminthes, which are parasitic.

I’m aware of one important invasive land planarian, and had seen some in Palo Verde, but there appears to be very little information concerning land planarians of Costa Rica. Indeed, a Google Scholar search produced a couple of papers, most of which were written before 1970.

Another individual found at Las Cruces on the tourist cabins:

Rhinoceros beetle grubs and male adults

Along a thin, elevationally-restricted band on the trails of Las Alturas, dead and dying male rhinoceros beetles lie in the leaf litter. These may be the males of the species posted here,

Emerald swift lizard

Sceloporus malachiticus is common in open areas >1500 m in elevation in Costa Rica. They are fast and skittish, so these individuals were a team effort in their catch. While S. malachiticus is viviparous, giving birth to live, developed young, other Sceloporus species are oviparous, laying small eggs and burying them in the soil. It’s thought that vivipary is common in lizards living at high elevations because it allows the females to better thermoregulate their developing young-that is, a gravid female can move her internal young around in her environment to regulate their temperature.

Tree ferns from Las Alturas

Tree ferns are a fascinating, diverse, monophyletic group of ferns in Order Cyatheales. From my anecdotal observations, they seem to thrive in wet secondary forests and some anthropogenically disturbed areas.

Many individuals have spines along their trunks and fronds, so while they look quite beautiful, especially from underneath, slipping around in the muddy under-story with them around is dangerous—I’ve reached for a few trunks, only to quickly pull back after a poke.

The individuals pictured here may be of genus Cyathea, as were the previous photographs I’ve posted.