Ecuador 1999
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Top left. View of the rainforest canopy from the 30 m tower at Yasuni by Vicky Moseley. Top right. One of a series of photographs of a monk saki monkey taken by Alexey Tisheckin. Lower left. Living specimen of Dynastes hercules taken by Debra Murray. Lower right. Large (calc. 20 cm) unidentified gecko photographed under palm leaf by Debra Murray. Are there any herp people out there that know this one?
With funding from the National Science Foundation and the LSU Agricultural Center's International Programs office, Chris Carlton, Victoria Moseley, Alexey Tishechkin, and Debra Murray traveled to Ecuador during June, July, and August, 1999. Most of the expedition was spent at Yasuni Biological Station in Napo Province in eastern Ecuador. The station is owned and operated by Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Ecuador in Quito, and is located in the western part of Yasuni National Park. Yasuni is the largest national park in Ecuador and consists mostly of pristine upper Amazonian rainforest, one of the most biologically diverse habitats in the world. We estimate that over 1200 species of butterflies and 600 species of birds occur in forests near the field station. Habitats available to us in the vacinity of the station included seasonally flooded and terra firma rainforest. Our objectives were to study elements of the beetle fauna under a National Science Foundation grant to Carlton and Tishechkin (see the Mesynodites project page), to conduct research on satyrine butterflies that are the subject of Debra Murray's dissertation project, and to collect insects for the LSAM collection that will be made available to other researchers through our loan program.
Our time at Yasuni was occupied according to our specific interests and objectives. Carlton sampled the arthropod fauna of the forest floor by collecting sifted organic matter and extracting the organisms using Berlese funnels and assisted Tishechkin in locating ant colonies. Moseley operated malaise and bait traps, collected from foliage, and ran mercury vapor and ultraviolet lights. Murray devoted most of her time to the capturing euptychiine butterflies, documenting larval host preferences, and rearing larvae. Tishechkin searched for social insects, especially army ants, that harbored the specialized beetles that are the subjects of his research and the NSF project. The flight intercept traps captured insects relevant to all our objectives. During our forays into the forest in search of insects, we had plenty of opportunities to observe the rich flora and fauna of the area. We saw six species of monkeys, freshwater pink dolphins, caimans, piranhas, capybaras, and a variety of small mammals. There was not a bird list available for the area so Moseley, our senior ornithologist, has posted a Yasuni bird list on her webpage, based on a compilation of our sightings. We enjoyed good weather during most of our visit to Yasuni, with a mixture of warm to hot days, short (usually) periods of heavy rain, and cool, sometimes spectacularly clear, nights. If anything, the weather on the equator was cooler than what we found in south Louisiana upon our return.
The Yasuni area has been opened up to oil exploration and production in recent years. The impact of the oil industry and access to the park is currently monitored and carefully controlled under agreements between the oil companies, the Ecuadorian government, and local indigenous peoples, particularly the Huaorani people that have lived in this part of the Amazon for many thousands of years. Ecuador has a sad recent history of oil exploitation in its eastern rain forests. During the 1980's, a series of disastrous oil spills and unregulated dumping of petroleum wastes destroyed much of the Cuyabeno wetlands north of Yasuni. The hard lessons of Cuyabeno seem to have had a positive impact on the extraction methods that are being used in Yasuni and elsewhere in the Oriente. Only time will tell whether the forest and the indigenous people who live there can survive the demand for oil and the opening of the western Amazon.
In addition to our extended stay at Yasuni, Murray spent two weeks at Maquipucuna Reserve and Research Station on the Pacific slope of the Andes northwest of Quito. Maquipucuna is owned by Fundacion Maquipucuna and comprises premontane to montane Pacific cloud forest, one of the most endangered habitats in Ecuador. The cloud forests of the Andes have levels of diversity equal to or greater than those of the Amazonian lowlands, with an added element of high local endemism due to the historical isolation of areas of forest by the rugged topography and active geology of the Andes. Since the days of the Incas, much of the human population of Ecuador has been concentrated in the higher elevations and along the coast. Thus, the native forests in these areas have been subjected to exploitation and deforestation for a long period of time and there is precious little left to protect..
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Left. A snail-eating snake, Sibon sp., eating a snail. Right. A large fulgorid planthopper displaying warning coloration. Photos C. Carlton.
In June, 1998, Chris Carlton, Vicky Moseley, and Alexey Tishechkin traveled to LaSelva Biological Station, near Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica northeast of San Jose with funding provided by the LSU Agricultural Center's International Program. The purpose of the trip was to initiate field work associated with Mr. Tishechkin's dissertation project on social insect associated hister beetles, to conduct surveys of forest litter inhabiting insects and establish working relationships with the Organization of Tropical Studies (OTS) and the University of Costa Rica. OTS, which owns and operates LaSelva, assisted with logistics and obtaining the necessary permits. In return, we will be contributing specimens and information from our collections to the Arthropods of LaSelva (ALAS) project. ALAS seeks to document arthropod species diversity on LaSelva within a broad range of taxa. Focal taxa change depending on the availability of taxonomic expertise through time. We will be contributing inventory data for pselaphid beetles and hister beetles, and will forward representatives of other groups to cooperating specialists which will provide additional data.
LaSelva Biological Station is a 3,700 acre "natural laboratory" consisting of lowland tropical rainforest and a limited area of plantations that are ecologically compatable with the areas natural landscape. The station is a full service facility for students and researchers, with roomy dormitories, a large cafeteria serving three meals a day, and an air conditioned laboratory for researchers and students enrolled in OTS tropical biology courses. OTS is a consortium of educational institutions with a common interest in promoting studies of tropical biology and training in the appropriate management of tropical ecosystems. LSU is a charter member of OTS, and many LSU students have been introduced to tropical biology through its membership.
Non-entomological highlights of the 1998 trip to LaSelva included opportunities to observe a great variety of wildlife; snakes with strange eating habits (above), two species of sloths, three species of monkeys, and strange fungi (below). The entomological rewards of working in a tropical forest during the rainy season are great too. Most days and some nights were spent following army ant columns through the forest in search of their nests or bivouacs. These were then harvested in a bizarre ritual that involved donning a bee suit and scooping out the masses of ants to be transported back to the laboratory. During the evening the tiny beetles that are the focus of Tishechkin's research were sorted from the ants using a series of different sized sieves and more exotic methods, most of which proved ineffective. For additional information go to the Mesynodites project. When not chasing or sorting ants, we were able to enjoy the many large, gaudy insects that are usually associated with tropical forests.
A tropical stinkhorn mushroom, Dictyophora indusiata, growing at La Selva by C. Carlton. Thanks to Alex Weir for the identification. Actual size was about 15 cm in height.
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Left. Moonrise over Rio Bravo. Right. Butterflies puddling at Cockscomb Basin. Photos C. Carlton.
For three weeks during May and June, 1997 the Louisiana State Arthropod Museum (LSAM) sponsored an expedition to the Central American country of Belize to conduct entomological research initiated in 1996. Thanks to a Summer Research Stipend awarded by the LSU Office of Research and Economic Development's Council on Research, seven scientists were able to make all or parts of the trip. The expedition was led by Chris Carlton and Victoria Moseley, Director and Curator of the LSAM, respectively, with participation by students, faculty and Research Associates from the Department, and Dr. Mark Muegge, an authority on primitive arthropods called diplurans, from Texas A & M University.
The first half of the expedition was conducted at Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area, a 230,000 acre nature preserve in the northwestern corner of the country. The objectives of this portion of the expedition were to survey forest litter insects at Rio Bravo and develop further research projects on comparative insect biodiversity, systematics, and conservation biology in the area. Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area is uniquely suited to these types of research because elements of sustainable forestry and natural product harvesting, ecotourism, and education are integrated into a single comprehensive long-term management plan developed by Programme for Belize, the private conservation organization that manages Rio Bravo and holds it in trust for the people of Belize. Rio Bravo is a beautiful mosaic of semitropical moist forest, savanna, and wetland habitats with over 230 species of trees, 70 species of mammals, and approximately 400 species of birds. Among large animals, the area has healthy populations of jaguar, puma, Baird's tapir, and two species of monkeys. There are also significant Mayan archeological sites, and the area has a colorful recent history of mahogany logging, chiclÈ extraction, and marijuana farming.
The primary objectives of our ongoing research is to study the beetle fauna of the area, including analyses of species richness and habitat associations, and to document species previously unknown to science. To date, detailed study by Carlton of pselaphine rove beetles has resulted in the discovery of 60 species that represent new records for the country. Twenty of these 60 represent species that have never been described or named, and their formal description is the subject of an upcoming publication. Study by Dr. Muegge has documented at least four new species of diplurans, including one that represents a family never recorded from Belize. The beetle research is being conducted in collaboration with scientists at Florida A & M University and elsewhere.
With help from the Belize National Plant Protection Service, our research will be expanded to forest reserves in other areas of the country in the coming years, and the second half of the expedition was devoted to identifying biologically unique areas for future work. We visited the headquarters of the Belize National Plant Protection Service and the Belizean National Collection near the capital, Belmopan, then traveled to nearby Mountain Pine Ridge, in the Maya Mountains, where the landscape was reminiscent of the Kisatchie National Forest of Louisiana if you ignored the exotic understory. We also spent several days at Cockscomb Basin Jaguar Preserve, the only forest preserve in the world devoted specifically to the protection of jaguar. Neither of these areas have been studied in detail from an entomological perspective. Following publication of the results of the Rio Bravo research, we will turn our attention to these and other areas with the long-term goal of developing a comprehensive comparative baseline of the insect faunas of major habitats represented in the system of nature preserves and national forests of this beautiful country.
