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…
Tag Archives: Macro
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.
A better picture for orthopterists
Here’s a more close up picture for a cricket expert…
San Jose
Upon arrival in San Jose, Mike and I made some exchanges at the bank, resulting in a a large stack of colones. I moved from San Jose last night and am currently at one of my mentor’s parents-in-law’s house in San Pedro, a 10 min bus ride to UCR instead of a 45 min one. Plus there is good, grandmotherly, cooked typical tico (Costa Rican) breakfast and dinner.
Hermit crab
Maybe I’m feeling crabby this morning.
Henna and a flower, but not the flower Henna
On a walk with Chandana (Raja’s niece) and her cousin in India, I was forcfully told to take pictures of flowers the girls were picking. I say ‘forcfully’ because the girls were telling me to take photos of various objects because they wanted to see the photographic output, which, to them, was somehow better than the real thing.