Let's Put All the Scary Things in One Blog Post

The past few days have been a whirlwind- everything has been so busy!

Following the completion of our faculty-led project, we immediately jumped into working on our independent projects. For my research project, I decided to stick to what I have the most experience in: pollination. After I suggested my idea to my professor, he suggested that I take a look at predator-pollinator interactions. There's a very common species of spider here known as the Green Lynx Spider (Peucentia viridans) that has an ambush strategy for hunting. Essentially, the spider hides out among the flowers (in this case, Ruellia inundata- a herb that is common in disturbed areas) and waits for the pollinator to come. Once the pollinator is feeding, the spider will spring onto its prey and immediately puncture a hole in the eye and suck out the juices.

Look at how adorably vicious it was to this honeybee!

Overall, the presence of a predator can affect how a plant reproduces- if the plant can't pollinate, then its genes won't be passed on to the next generation, thus lowering its fitness. It's actually a really cool example of some top-down effects on trophic levels of ecosystems. I'm hoping that we'll see something interesting out of this experiment, especially since I think the topic and the theory behind it is super cool. Apparently too cool, since my professor pulled me over after my proposal presentation to tell me that I was too excited and spoke too fast during my part of the presentation. Whoops.

Despite being sucked into the never-ending vortex that is our Independent Project, I've still had a little time to enjoy Palo Verde. One of my favorite activities at the end of the day is to go out on the boardwalk to watch the flocks of birds. There are some beautiful ones- including spoonbills! Also watching the sun set over the marsh is just a gorgeous sight in general. My friends and I often return to the boardwalk at night to do a bit more stargazing. I definitely can recognize more constellations down now as a result, so at least I'm learning something while I'm down here.

We also just tend to run into interesting animals every day anyways, which freshens things up a bit . A fun game that I play with myself is the "What Animal am I Going to Find in the Bathroom Today" game. So far, we are currently up to one bat, five frogs (staring at me while I was showering- a bit disconcerting), an assortment of beetles, a katydid, ants, and a few other unidentifiables.

This is one of the tarantulas that lives OUTSIDE of the bathroom, so it doesn't count for the game. 

Additionally, sometimes the organisms just wander into our midst when we're least expecting it. Last night, my friend suddenly burst into the classroom with this frightened look on his face and immediately said "There's a giant wasp out here, and I can't catch it and I'm scared". At first we all thought he was just being a sissy, but no. This wasp was giant, and terrifying. Eventually, another girl and I managed to snag the (very angry) wasp in a net and into a (double) plastic bag. We were later told that if we had been stung we probably would have been hospitalized. Also whoops. 

I was not kidding about this wasp.

I additionally just saw peccaries for the first time just outside of our classroom/bedrooms. I'm not kidding when I say that organisms just pop up very unexpectedly.

We also often have encounters with animals based on the staff that work at the station. Sergio works in reception, and is working with bats for his university studies. So he brought a few to show us:

He's got a great smile, don't you think?

We also encountered a sea snake because the station director, Mahmood, studies snakes and just happened to receive a specimen that day. This snake I could tolerate a bit more. Possibly because it was in the plastic case and not actually out and about. But tolerate is the key word in that sentence.

So despite the Independent Project filling my brain constantly (I seriously see green spiders when I close my eyes), I'm still managing to have a great time here. Wish me luck on the experiments!