It was great having you in the lab! Good luck with your new jobs in Argentina. Come back for a visit soon!
Support parataxonomists!
I found this article about parataxonomists in Costa Rica and Papua New Guinea in Science today: Uncertain Future for Tropical Ecology
These people are locals but usually way better taxonomists than most of the foreign scientists who go there (e.g. me ;-)). They do amazing work, and could for example help Angie identify trees this field season. I also love the idea because it engages local communities and helps build relationships between conservation areas and the people who essentially live in or around them. Unfortunately, many of these programs are facing budget problems right now. So if you have a rich grandmother or cousin: get them to support parataxonomists!
This is a picture of Calixto Moraga, one of the parataxonomists working for Dan Janzen at Pitilla, doing a guided tour for US undergrads during our last field trip:
Random ball games
Thank god, someone with an intuitive example (at least to the average North American male) for why species abundance distributions might not mean a thing:
Universal Ecological Patterns in College Basketball Communities.
There are others in this earlier paper, e.g. the compositional similarity of global cuisine ingredient lists over space, garden seed offerings and Cowboy Junkies song performances over time. Hail to thee, creative scientists with opinions!
Guatemala report II
Last Saturday I visited El Biotopo de Quetzal (the protected area of Quetzal),
where I found many bromeliads.
Most of them were on the ground along the trail, and some of them were on trees.
They had phytotelmata, though I didn’t have enough time to observe them very well.
I could find a mosquito larva in the water and a spider hiding inside the leaves.
El Biotopo is located 20km north of Salamá, where there are humid and cloud forests
(1800-1900m in elevation).
It’s the only place to see Quetzal in Guatemala,
though it’s very hard to meet this amazing bird in the forest.
But very fortunately, I could observe it this time!
I was really lucky to see it in the first visit.
Report from Guatemala
I’ve finally started the insect survey in Salamá, Guatemala!
I’m working with the local NGO, FUNDEMABV.
My field site, Los Cerritos, is just behind our office.
It’s a typical dry forest with many huge cactuses.
Now I’m mainly collecting butterflies, most of them are small but nice!
I’m looking forward to seeing many beetles in wet season (May-October).
I’ll stay here for 2 years, so come and see me anytime during that period!
