18:00 Well I cleaned out the surrounding
areas of the dormitories this morning, then raked all the leaves in the area
off the paths before sweeping the labs.
I made some headway with the inventory and decided on how to tackle the
‘library mini lab room.’ I found some good books that I decided I must read at
some point during my time here.
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| Leaf Katydid (Dean Philpot) |
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| Definitely Getting My 5 A-Day (Dean Philpot) |
Last night I became infatuated with
insects around dinner thanks to the family husband. Tales of deadly parasitic fungus and
interesting symbiotic relationships among insects and fungi from his vast
knowledge on over 20,000 Costa Rican species filled dinners conversations. I managed to find 3 interesting individuals
that he enjoyed, as well as from my photos from these last few days, and he
knew them all to genus level immediately!
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| Hairy Caterpillar (Dean Philpot) |
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| An Undulate Skull (Dean Philpot) |
One of them was extremely strange, a
small thing with a pointed, forked tail and a sticklike body with the
unsurprising six legs near the front of the stick, so like an earwig. But, this thing had ‘eyes’ on the front of the
stick and had an extension that curled around into a half-moon shape creating
the appearance to me that this insect was carrying a stick though no, it is
just part of his body.
.JPG) |
| Natures Strangers (D.Philpot) |
I was told these
things fly which was baffling as walking alone for this creature seemed highly
difficult and he kept toppling over whilst walking about on our dinner table.
Mission college have not long settled in
to the dormitories and staff rooms here in the main lodge.
21:20 I have got to know about half the
group over a very nice dinner with guava juice.
We then had the history of Cabo Blanco story from DL, who returned
before the group arrived, which is always a pleasure to hear. Although it was partly interrupted by a
rustling Nine-Banded Armadillo outside (I still want a photo of one ‘standing’
or rearing on its hind legs). I am now
just relaxing before the waves seen me asleep and I have to spend another day
in this tropical paradise.
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| Golden Orb Weaver (Dean Philpot) |
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| Back By My Favourite Spot (Dean Philpot) |