On the first Independent Project

No post yesterday because we were working from morning until 1:30 am finishing collecting data, analyzing and preparing the presentation for our first Faculty-Led Project (FLP).  (Okay, so I went to bed at 11:30 -- the rest of the group spent two more hours torturing the data!)  The story in a nutshell: we found these Coreid bugs living on ant acacia trees where most other living things are chased off by the ants.  How is this possible?  We hypothesized chemical defense/camouflage, and inspected the gland where all bugs in this group expel defense compounds.  When you upset the bug, it sprays a liquid that smells like green apple candy.  If you smear some of this on a Q-tip and tap the Q-tip on an acacia branch, the ants run over to investigate, but once they get close to the smell they run away again.  (A clean Q-tip is attacked with vigor).  We're not 100% sure that this is the same mechanism that the bugs use to make themselves invisible, but it's certainly part of their "living with acacia ants" arsenal, and very cool!  Combined with some of the other ecological data we've collected and a chemical analysis of the compound, we think it might be an Oecologia-quality (mid-level journal) paper.  Much more than we expected from this little project!

As soon as the results were presented at 8am this morning, we shifted gears and started talking about our first independent projects.  My FLP group decided to split up into 2 groups of 3 and continue to pursue Coreid bug questions; my sub-group is going to look at how other ant species react to the bugs, and how the bugs react to other Acacia species (there are 2 species of Ant Acacia locally, 4 species of ants on the Acacias, and one other Acacia that doesn't usually have ants on it).  The big group of 6 that worked on the FLP was full of ideas and very exciting to be a part of, but sometimes we got so wrapped up in discussion that it took forever to make a decision and then get moving.  The smaller groups already seem more efficient and relaxing.  Either way, I'm learning a lot about what scientific collaboration is all about.  It feels great to sit around a table for two hours discussing experimental design and implications, and resent being torn away for dinner.  

In between the thrill of design and discovery, I've been exhausted.  I've definitely been pushing my boundaries, cutting sleep and time for reflection short.  This morning I had to go back to bed at 9am for a couple of hours.  I had a vivid dream about going to an all-you-can-eat buffet with the other OTS students.  While everyone else was loading a normal plate and sitting down to eat, I just kept picking out more food, plate after plate, and piling them up.  By the time I actually sat down to eat, there was WAY more food than I could ever manage.  Plus, I'd spilled it all over myself in the process -- spaghetti sauce up to my elbows.  Anybody want to take a stab at interpreting that one?  I woke up laughing and felt rejuvenated.

Highlights from the last couple of days: 

Howler monkeys at one of our acacia sites yesterday.  I got to hear them howling for the first time, and then a bit later they came down with a baby in tow and checked us out.  

I haven't seen any scorpions outside of collection jars yet, but as I was brushing my teeth this evening I heard one of the guys in the next-door bathroom commenting on the number in the shower.  So I'm keeping my shoes on when I walk around anywhere.  I've gotten two ticks just today, though, and not in the kind of place one likes to have ectoparasites.  At least they don't carry diseases here.  

I realized yesterday that I really do unequivocally love the food at Palo Verde.  Beans and rice for every meal (even breakfast), always with some kind of fresh local juice.  Usually I can't identify it.  Often we have avocados with breakfast, sweet breads with most meals.  Yesterday I had my very first passion fruit, aka 'monkey brain,' a slimy delicacy.  Steamed local squash, or cucumbers and radishes in vinegar.  Fresh melon and pineapple.  I think I could eat this stuff forever.  I hope the next places we go are this good!

I was just interrupted from typing this by the news that a tailless scorpion had appeared on the sidewalk outside my room.  It was cool, looked like a big, flat spider.

I'll close this post with my bird list for the last 3 days.  I discovered that the nightjar I saw was the common pauraque (named for the call, which apparently sounds like "porque").  This morning I saw 2 turquoise-browed motmots, which are really gorgeous birds with a call like a soft train whistle.  Other than that, the new additions to the list are limpkin, little blue heron, great egret, purple gallinule, muscovy duck, american avocet, white-fronted parrot, yellow-naped parrot, common pauraque, groove-billed ani, boat-billed flycatcher, white-throated magpie-jay, and red-winged blackbird.