Yesterday was our first day of real field work. We set up a 30m transect
in an original forest habitat. I
flagged the line every 5m and set up a pitfall trap for ant collection
by each flag. Our pitfall traps are plastic cups set into the ground
with the opening level with the surface of the soil. A worker ant will
be out
foraging, minding its own business, when suddenly it will slip on the
smooth plastic edge of the cup, and fall straight to the bottom.
Waiting for it in the bottom of the trap is a layer of isopropyl
alcohol that both kills and preserves the specimens.
I bought supplies for the pitfall trap at the nearby "Super Kike," a local grocery store. I got several containers of isopropyl alcohol and package of plastic cups to make the traps. It was pretty much the sketchest purchase anyone's ever made. The cashier looked at me funny and asked, "Is that all?" When I said it was, she probably just thought to herself "Americano loco..." and left it at that.
Today we continued our setup of collection points. I laid down two 10m transects in two different monoculture teak forests, with pitfall traps every 5m. I also started tuna baiting in the teak forest and collected the ants that were foraging on six different tuna baits. I'm not sure whether pitfall trapping and baiting will be sufficient to capture specimens of all the cryptic ant species and specialist predators that are found here, so hopefully we'll be able to use Berlese funnels to extract ants from leaf-litter samples collected from our different habitat sites.
After a successful day in the field, it was satisfying to reflect on it while eating a delectable Costa Rican dinner and enjoying the company of my fellow researchers. I'm looking forward to getting a good night's sleep tonight, and waking up tomorrow and confronting the challenges of the new day.
-Sebastian
I bought supplies for the pitfall trap at the nearby "Super Kike," a local grocery store. I got several containers of isopropyl alcohol and package of plastic cups to make the traps. It was pretty much the sketchest purchase anyone's ever made. The cashier looked at me funny and asked, "Is that all?" When I said it was, she probably just thought to herself "Americano loco..." and left it at that.
Today we continued our setup of collection points. I laid down two 10m transects in two different monoculture teak forests, with pitfall traps every 5m. I also started tuna baiting in the teak forest and collected the ants that were foraging on six different tuna baits. I'm not sure whether pitfall trapping and baiting will be sufficient to capture specimens of all the cryptic ant species and specialist predators that are found here, so hopefully we'll be able to use Berlese funnels to extract ants from leaf-litter samples collected from our different habitat sites.
After a successful day in the field, it was satisfying to reflect on it while eating a delectable Costa Rican dinner and enjoying the company of my fellow researchers. I'm looking forward to getting a good night's sleep tonight, and waking up tomorrow and confronting the challenges of the new day.
-Sebastian
That would definitely be the sketchiest purchase I’ve ever seen.. It sounds like research is going well! I didn’t really feel sorry for the ants until you painted that picture. I think the lady at the store would have probably thought you were crazier if she knew what you were really using that stuff for...