David Wyatt

David Wyatt

Jun 23, 2014

Group 6 Copy 27
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Sunday back to TREES

Yep, the Caribbean is this blue...

On the way back to Dangriga, we stopped at Man-o-War Caye.  This bird sanctuary is a nesting rookery for Brown Boobies and Magnificent Frigatebirds (don't you just love these names!!!).  The place is quite small but it sure does have a lot of birds.

Three brown boobies to the right, one frigate bird to the left.

A tree full of Boobies.

Undocking in Dangriga.

Back at TREES, we were once again labeling and doing the last touch-ups on the specimens. 

Marlin provided tremendous help again.  Yes, that is hot sauce to the right of the photo...not for consumption on the insects...and there is alcohol here too - but this is for the specimens that will be submitted for DNA work.  This day was also devoted to matching alcohol specimens with pinned specimens so that we can mark them with a tracking system.  This way the pinned specimen can have an attached DNA barcode that corresponds to the specimen submitted for the DNA work.

Vanessa gets a breakdown of the materials we're leaving at TREES plus the methods that can be used to prepare specimens for the collection.  We provided TREES with the 24 California Academy of Science drawers, the unit trays that accompany the drawers, many trays of vials of multiple sizes, alcohol for specimen preparation (particularly for future DNA work), hundreds (maybe thousand or so) stainless steel insect pins, desiccant, humidity indicator cards, fumigant, collecting jars, pooters (these are small suction devices for collecting small insects), vial trays, insect nets, and spreading boards.  A great starting point for a nice research collection.

Erich is one of the primary interns staying at TREES for the summer.  He is a herpetologist by training and also received a good deal of entomology training during our stay at TREES.  He had a pretty bad wound on his ankle from some sort of bite...here Alicia helps him treat the wound with a cool mixture of flour and yeast.  It drew out the infection and put Erich on the road to recovery.

Vanessa with Alicia and her children.  Marlin is on the right and Xumarra is in the middle of the back row.

As evening wore on, Sammy regularly got to receive our attention for some puppy love.

We outlasted Sammy and Eva while we worked into the night.

Late night sorting into taxonomic units in the various drawers.  We ended up filling thirteen of the twenty-four drawers...not really completely filling but definitely getting a great start on the insect collection.

Fun to see the specimens grouped into their various taxa.

The drawers as we are starting the sorting process.

One of the really cool Fulgorids that we caught.  I really love this group of insects...so very interesting morphology and their colors are quite spectacular.  

It's 4 am and the drawers are finally sorted...a total of 13 drawers.  Here are six of the drawers as they were separated into taxonomic units.  Close-ups of these individual drawers are coming up....

The other seven drawers....

The long-horned wood borers - Cerambycidae.

Various beetle families, including Passalidae (Bess Beetles), Tenebrionidae (Darkling Beetles), etc.

Drawer full of Scarab beetles.

Various families of Beetles...including Click Beetles, Fireflies, Weevils, etc.

The Fly family...lots of these remain to be pinned as point mounts because they are so small.  Several jars of these in alcohol were brought back for the point pinning.

Hemiptera drawer (one of two)...

Hemiptera drawer #2.

Odonata (Dragonflies and Damselflies), Megaloptera (Dobsonflies), Tricoptera (Caddisflies), and Dermaptera (Earwigs).

Mantids and Roaches (Mantodea and Blattodea).

Hymenoptera (Wasps, Bees, and Ants).

The Grasshoppers, Crickets, and Katydids (Orthoptera).

Butterfly drawer...

Moths...

1 comment

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  • George Su
    George Su
    Man, these pictures are making me want to travel. Those Fulgorids in particular are really interesting. Didn't know about them before and just spend a good thirty minutes reading about them online.
    Jun 23, 2014

About This Project

This project intends to create a major entomology collection housed in Belize and to conduct bat inventories while in Belize. The Maya Mountains of Belize are a biological hotspot located in one of the fastest growing regions of our planet (Central America). Yet, even with this growth, Belize has chosen to protect over one-quarter of their country as parks and preserves! Biological inventories help to better understand these protected areas.
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