Tag Archives: Costa Rica

Immature Lepidopterans

I’ve accumulated a few photographs of caterpillars and pupa in my ‘to publish’ folder for Montegraphia, so I’m putting them up now.  They’re not the greatest works, but they were all cool finds in the field.  The pupa was attached to the wall of the field station in San Ramon – there are most likely several photos floating around the Internet of this pupa given that it was pointed out to the course while at the station last winter. 

The green caterpillar was one of a few on the hiking path in Zaleski State Forest.  It was peculiar the number of caterpillars we encountered, presumably searching for a good, safe place to pupate.

The yellow caterpillar was common in Palo Verde this summer, and would inevitably be crawling down my shirt after walking through some brush.  The yellow hairs cause a rash, as shown on Mahmood’s arm, and were quite bothersome when combined with the heat, humidity and mosquitoes….

Perhaps I’ll be able to speculate on identifications after I’ve taught that section in Entomology this semester…

_1032141Camping at Zaleski State Forest - 09.04.2010 - 15.01.41Poisonous caterpillar - 06.27.2010 - 10.53.45Poisonous caterpillar - 06.27.2010 - 10.52.24

Crop dusting bananas

From the top of an old water tower, Boa and I watched a regionally famous crop duster spray Dole’s banana plantation in Valle de La Estrella.  The agility and accuracy of the pilot was exceptional – with each pass, the pilot cut off flow while flying over a road and simultaneously rose slightly to narrowly miss the power lines running parallel to the road.

The plantation spans much of Valle de La Estrella and has consequently dramatically altered the hydrology of the region.  Various dikes and canals are used to control flow through the plantation into the river, and proposed projects to increase control through construction of additional channels threaten a protected coral reef south of the Rio La Estrella’s mouth (in Cahuita) due to increased sediment load.

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Croton argenteus

Croton argenteus confused me for a while.  I had encountered the species in and around the Palo Verde wetland as a small, emergent plant, and had assumed it was annual or at least without above ground tissue across years because it was not present in the beginning of the season and it was flowering soon after emerging. As such, I could not find it in the keys….

Then, while driving to Reserva Biologica Lomas de Barbudal to help Ramsa (a PhD student studying watershed land-use effects on insect communities in and around dry-forest streams), I spotted a large shrub that looked surprisingly similar to my yet unidentified wetland plant.  When I returned and picked up the shrub and tree book – bingo.

I suspect that cattle grazing knocks back this species from growing to a shrub-like state, since there is frequently evidence of herbivory on the small plants I encountered.

Euphorbiaceae - Croton argenteus - 07.14.2010 - 09.17.05

Euphorbiaceae - Croton argenteus - 07.14.2010 - 09.16.53

Ride out the Hitoy Cerere

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Boa borrowed his father’s motorcycle to drive to Hitoy Cerere and, while hanging off of the back of the cycle, I photographed some of the journey.  The first picture I was still, and shows a small, unforested plot on the hill in the distance: Boa’s families houses and ranch.  On the left of the photo is a dike used to control Rió La Estrella’s water flow from destroying too much of Dole’s banana plantations.

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