We left Tucson on Monday at around 8 am. Santa Rita Experimental Range (SRER) is about an hour and 15 minutes south of Tucson. When we arrived we had the opportunity to see a research group present to us how to gather data on hummingbirds. They weighed them, measured beak size, then banded them and gave the birds a little meal before sending them on their way.
After dropping our gear and seeing the hummingbirds, we sat down to hear a
talk by our lead professor Lee Dyer. I think the most interesting things I
learned from this talk were…
1. That most caterpillars don’t turn into what most
people would call butterflies, but instead they morph into moths. Most, nearly
all members of the Lepidoptera order turn into moths, only a few of the
family/groups that make up this taxonomic order becomes what the public know to
be butterflies.
2. Parasatoids despite their name are really good
for ecosystems. They are the insects that lay their eggs/larvae inside caterpillars
and then just before the caterpillar begins to form a cocoon, the fly/wasp
larva shoots out of it like an alien out of a human body in a sci-fi movie. The
parasotoid kills the caterpillar in the process. This may seem like a bad thing
but in reality, it is helpful to plants as caterpillars are pretty enthusiastic
herbivores.
3. Climate change (rises in temperature, carbon
dioxide, and extreme weather) cause a decrease in parastoid/caterpillar
interactions leading to an increase in caterpillar populations that means bad
things for human agriculture.
It was really fascinating. I’d never known that the world of
such a small mobile larvae was so complicated.
I spent the late morning on the food crew grocery shopping
for meals this week. We filled 4 carts of healthy, hearty food.When we returned from the store, I went on a 2-3 mile hike
up the nearest mountain. It was incredible, what an amazing ecosystem. So dry
and the vegetation so different from out East. Everything was so short and
shrubby, dry, and yellow. I had some water with me and didn't run out, but I
definitely want to hike further and higher next time.
In the late afternoon, Lee gave a talk on the different
kinds of Caterpillars that exist and their body structures. Not only are there
hundreds of different sizes, shapes, and colors caterpillars can come in, but
some actually can use their butt as a catapult to shoot their poop up to 2
meters away. That’s like me tossing my excrement a distance of two football
fields, pretty amazing! I will get into the different body parts and how to
identify different types of caterpillars
as well as collecting techniques in a future post.
Post dinner and a talk by the man that runs SRER regarding the natural history of this place, I went up to the light/sheet that a
grad student set up. There were hundreds of moths of all shapes and sizes
flapping around the bulb, and clinging to the sheet. I got to hold a really large
one. It was so soft, and it’s feet were kind of suctioney, so it wouldn't fall
off my surface. It was beautiful. It was crazy to think that all these flying
moths were thumb sized caterpillars at one point. Tomorrow I’ll see much more
of that stage of life for these insects as our full morning sessions of
collection will begin!
