A non-native banana (Musa rosacea) found along and in stream beds at Las Cruces Biological Station.
Musa flowers
Tag Archives: Costa Rica
Monitoring temperature and humidity along an elevation gradient
During NAPIRE 2013, a couple of mentors and the station director at Las Cruces Biological Station decided to set up iButtons to remotely monitor temperature and relative humidity at 100 m increments along an elevation gradient. The aim was to place an iButton from 1100 m to 1400 m at the reserve at Las Cruces, then include the forest at Las Alturas to monitor 1500 to 2100 m.
I helped to set out the sensing units at Las Cruces, and this past year, during NAPIRE 2015, I happened across one of them… I recognized the site when visiting Katie’s butterfly roosting experiment.
Another set of photos from the Las Cruces Overlook
While the biological station is at about 1150 m above sea level, the highest point, sitting at about 1440 m, in the reserve is at a newly acquired pasture directly west of the station. I’ve posted shots from here in the past.
Predation risk of roosting Ithomiin butterflies
Adrea, a recent PhD graduate from UCLA, is mentoring three students in the NAPIRE program with projects on Ithomiin butterflies—a diverse group of clear-winged, neotropical butterflies that form breeding aggregations and tend to roost together. One of Adrea’s students, Katie, is investigating predation risk of roosting butterflies using models of two species that she’s constructed. Here, Katie checks her model butterflies for damage inflicted by predation attempts on the models.
Rio Gamboa
West Branch of the Rio Java
Some images of the West Branch of Rio Java.
This branch drains primary forest, and is rich in macroinvertebrate diversity, but doesn’t appear to have fish. In 2013, David surveyed this stream for fish, but did not discover any, and this year, Jackalyn collected macroinvertebrates using a D-net and immediately found a couple of new taxonomic groups she had previously not sampled.
The stream is steep, which likely prevents fish dispersal, and it’s bedrock substrate isn’t forgiving when the near-daily rains fill the banks.
A rain frog from Las Cruces
Fitzinger’s rain frog Craugastor fitzingeri.
Vesper rats
A juvenile vesper rat Nyctomys sumichrasti. We have trapped two of these mice in the house we’re staying in, although the one below was trapped in 2013. They seem to like bananas… and Cristian, another research mentor, doesn’t particularly like the mice…
NAPIRE led mealtime
One of the dinners in 2013’s NAPIRE program was prepared by some students and staff.
Bird’s Nest fungus
A basidiomycete (Nidulariaceae), the fruiting bodies of this saprotrophic fungus resembles eggs in a bird nest.
