This morning I woke up at the crack of dawn, put on my muddy boots, and slopped down a muddy and miserable trail in search of spiders. Not only did I find these spiders (clustered in a tree of over 200), I poked a stick at them to chase them down a tree (that is covered in spines both on the bark and on the leaves) towards a mesh cube to later determine their sex and transport them to another spiny palm site on the other side of the reserve. I then spent the afternoon poking around in leaf-cutter ant holes.

I never imagined that I would love field-work this much. Yeah, it is exhausting and frustrating (so many hills and so many insect bites), and sometimes I have no idea if the data my partner and I are collecting is making any sense, but I truly enjoy every moment of it. Each venture out there has a purpose and we are finally starting to see some interesting results. The procedure of coming out here to the wilderness, running around and observing behaviors, and developing a testable question and predictions about a system has been more stressful (and more fun) than I ever imagined it could be. However, I am still not a fan of reaching my bare hand into a fabric cube of spiders and watch them bite my hand- nor do I like poking sticks at them in a tree and having them fall in my hair.

We have almost completed our harvestmen (spider) project. Our question focuses on whether or not these spiders that live in spiny palms in clustered groups of up to 300 individuals have sex specific chemical cues since it has been established that they are sexually dimorphic and rely on chemical cues left by other individuals when finding a roosting site. We have translocated 510 individuals into 17 trees and thus far it seems that females attract both males and females whereas males only seem to attract more males. But we still need to do the stats. Just three more translocations are needed and then we will collect the last of the data involving the habitat characteristics of each translocation site

With regards to our other project looking at the potential difference in leaf cutter ant colony quality and behavior when living in un-logged or selectively logged areas, we still have a lot of data to collect. We tried doing our data collection at night but…there was a large animal in the canopy above us, a wasp that stung my partner and professor, and a giant tarantula. So we have to collect our data during the late afternoon. But I am sure we can complete everything over the next seven days.

I look forward to finishing up early and having some time to eat lunch on the river. I also look forward to one last easy hike through the jungle before going home.