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On Wednesday morning we packed up our gear and headed back to San Ramon to pick up Viviana and some food for a night in Las Rocas (see Entry #3). Sadly, 68-year old Rodrigo had experienced blood pressure problems on Sunday and was in San Jose. Diego was concerned about his father but glad to see us. I had taken my computer so that I could not only show them photos from my first visit, but those from other butterfly-rearing operations. Diego enjoyed the show and learned more about the trade he is entering. The countryside around Las Rocas looked pretty much the same as when I was here before but the creatures both during the day and at night were much more abundant. |
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The UV light pulled in a few insects. When I checked it at about 3:00am, the most exciting find was this moth. Compare it to the Lycorea William Camacho collected (Entry #12). It is a dead ringer. I am guessing that it was roosting nearby since I am sure it flies during the day when Lycorea does. The most interesting thing was what it did when I caught it. It immediately started spewing green foam from behind its head. That showing in the photo is only about 20% of the total released while in my hand. Unfortunately, I wasn’t thinking and did not taste it but suspect that it is an effective deterrent to predators. In the morning we spotted another flying but could not net it to see if it had a similar response. I did get close enough to determine that it was the same bug by its moth-like antennae. This is one of the few specimens I am bringing home to learn more about. |
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The Lycorea from
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Another interesting find was this white dobsonfly. I have seen it, or one very closely related, in one location in Sonora. |
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Had we been running a mercury vapor light here, we might have had some of these rhinoceros beetles, Megasoma elephas. We were passing over a dam that is about 5 kilometers below Las Rocas and stopped to see what insects were lingering under the mercury vapor lights there. Given that we found this male (with horns) and female and a number of other insects still around at 10:30am, it must have been thrilling at night. We also saw BioQuip’s logo, the harequin beetle, Acrocinus longimanus, hanging on the wrong side of the chainlink fence. As soon as it was touched, it dropped into the swirling water 50 feet below. Two other long-horned beetles were collected and are pictured with the other plants and animals in Las Rocas. |
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Entomologists and other biologists
I'd like to identify many of the creatures on this page and following pages. Can you help? Contact me if you know what something is. Thanks. -- S.J. Prchal |
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