2015 Update...

Hi everyone. My apologies for not updating all of you for so long! I do want to tell you about all of the things that have occurred due to your investment in this research project. Without that initial work, I don't think most of what has happened would actually have occurred...so "Thank You" so very much!

 

The above picture is "moving in day" at the TREES facility. Why were we "moving in"? It's the first day of class at the TREES facility for eighteen students. June 2015 was the first foray by Sonoma State University (one of the California State University campuses) into having a class in Belize. Fran and I were able to propose and get approval for a Tropical Biodiversity field class for sixteen days in June 2015. We had the privilege of introducing these eighteen students to something they had never done before - a field class in the tropics.

 

The class started in Belize on June 14 where we spent the first three days at the Tropical Education Center (operated in association with the Belize Zoo). In this photo, Fran is giving one of our first lectures at the TEC facility.

 

The students had the opportunity that first night to see the beautiful red-eyed tree frog. And, before dark, we were able to see boat-billed herons as they prepared to leave their roost to go foraging - this is a species that is active at night and sleeps during the day. They have that large bill to snap up prey items that they find while walking around on the ground. Really neat species!

 

 

Another remarkable find while at TEC was this Argentine Brown Bat with youngster. Some of our students found them in one of the shower stalls. The young was attached to the mother's teat (and he/she wasn't letting go). The mother will fly around with the baby clinging to her chest as she goes out to forage. And yes, that is not an optical illusion, the baby is over half the size of the mom! I was able to get her and the baby outside and she flew off with the youngster...really awesome!

During our stay at the TEC, we were able to go to the Belize Zoo on a couple of occasions, do some mist netting for bats in the evening, and do some birding walks in the morning (where we even saw a small flock of yellow-headed Amazon parrots - an Endangered Species). After our last night at the TEC, we headed to the TREES field station...but before going to TREES, we had a trip to the Mayan ruins at Xunantunich. This was a large Classic Maya city along the western border of present day Guatemala and Belize.

 

 

While at Xunantunich, we climbed the large pyramid in the background of both pictures - this is nearly 130 feet tall. Spectacular views from the top. While coming down from the pyramid, we saw a group of black howler monkeys feeding in the trees. Here is a picture of one of them....

 

 

We also found at Xunantunich this really cool velvet ant - which is not an ant at all, but rather a wingless wasp. The females are wingless, but yes, they can sting just like many other wasps. This beautiful specimen was about 0.5-inch long and was found in the ball-court at Xunantunich.

After Xunantunich we headed to TREES...the aforementioned first photograph shows some of our students moving into the cabins at TREES. After moving in, we settled down for nearly two weeks exploring the rainforest surrounding the field station. Multiple taxa were studies - mammals caught in live traps, bats caught by mist netting, bird mist netting, herpetology (reptiles & amphibians) surveying, ethnobotany, and of course entomology.

 

A lot of bess beetles (Family Passalidae) came to our light traps at night. These are really beautiful beetles that live in dead wood and they often have small mites living on the beetles - one is visible on the right side of the thorax.

 

Another one of our visitors at the light trap. A green sphinx moth.

 

Some of the moths and butterflies we collected and brought back to the Bohart Museum of Entomology (University of California Davis). We brought back several thousand specimens from this trip.

Here the students were able to go out on a hike with a local ethnobotanist. Such a wealth of knowledge possessed by these Belizeans, truly awesome!

 

During mist netting for bats one night, we caught a male vampire bat. Out of the nearly 1,200 species of bats, about 70% of them feed primarily on insects (thus making them incredibly important to ecosystems and humans) and only three species feed on blood. At one time, the vampire bats were not particularly abundant - because they usually feed on large mammals and the jungles supported a limited number of large mammals (like tapirs, jaguars, mountain lions, etc). But then humans moved into these areas, cut down forest, and brought in cattle to graze in these open fields...in fact, brought in lots and lots of livestock like cattle, pigs, and goats. Instant abundant food supply for vampire bats and their numbers increased substantially.

 

 

 

This is a male rhinoceros beetle with the scientific name Coelosis biloba. Such a beautiful beetle! One other thing I really love about this beetle is that it was given it's scientific name by Linnaeus in 1767. He was the first person to scientifically describe this species and to give it a name. Fantastic!

 

Fran and Noah at one of the light traps.

Here the group gathers to go out on a guided hike into the jungle...

 

On one of the days, we took the students out to the coral reef to snorkel on this species-rich habitat. That was a nice break from the intense studying in the field course while at TREES. The drive home was very quiet because nearly everyone was asleep in their seats. Yep, we wore out our students....

 

Even our class assistant - Justin - was plumb tuckered out (and this was at breakfast!!!)....

 

Another really cool find was this beetle with the marvelous iridescent colors.

 

And, one last picture - this time showing mimicry in specimens we collected. The "model" is on the left and is a wasp with a very painful sting. The two "mimics" to the middle and right are not wasps but are an assassin bug (Order Hemiptera) and a katydid (Order Orthoptera). The katydid does not have any defense other than looking like something with a substantial defense (the wasp) while the assassin bug does have a painful bite so while it has it's own defensive means, it also looks like another species that is protected by it's own defense (in this case a stinger). The katydid is an example of a type of mimicry called Batesian Mimicry - where the model is toxic or noxious and the mimic is not, but it looks like the toxic/noxious species. The assassin bug and the wasp are an example of Mullerian Mimicry - where two or more species, all with defense mechanisms, look alike for conveyance of mutual protection.

 

This sure was a fantastic class to be able to offer. It was such a privilege to be able to share this remarkable country and it's wonderful biodiversity with our students! With the success of this class, we definitely wanted to do it again. Originally we were told that this was likely a one-shot affair, but it didn't turn out that way and we were able to propose and offer another Sonoma State University class during June 2016. For the 2016 class, we are targeting the "flying taxa" of Belize...in other words, the "Birds, Bats, and Insects of Belize". Information about this class can be found at https://www.belizebiodiversity.wordpress.com. Please check it out to see what the class is all about.

In addition to the new Sonoma State University class, we are also organizing an entomology bioblitz for the last two weeks of June 2016. A bioblitz is an intensive biodiversity survey with professionals...in this case, we are collecting insects from the TREES area including the 78,000 acre Sibun Forest Reserve. More on these two 2016 journeys in another post I will put up.