Your most interesting/exciting catch: 1 - Family Lycaenidae
Oct 27, 2014 6:44:03 GMT -8
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Post by jshuey on Oct 27, 2014 6:44:03 GMT -8
I thought I’d try and start a new set of threads with this post and the next. The idea is to highlight a single really cool species that you have personally captured (with a net – not a key board). And tell a bit of the story behind the capture (what makes it so cool in your mind. I hope this engages people across the globe – in the process telling us more about you, your interests and your adventures in the field. I’d love to see great photos of your bug of course, but also of the adventure/habitat that underpins your interesting story.
So – here’s my crack at it!
John
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After thinking long and hard – I decided that my single Hairstreak would be Evenus coronata. Not only is it a gorgeous bug, but the only two places I collected it were quite an adventure.
The male came from the Columbia Forest Reserve in Belize. We hired four Maya guides (and two of their horses) from the village of San Jose to take us into the Columbia Forest for a 10 day sampling trip. The first half of the hike followed a very muddy logging road up hill, and it rained constantly during the hike in. Mud caked to our boots with every step, adding pounds to our feet as we trudged up slope. When we finally arrived at our halfway point, Edwards Central (elevation 700m), we were exhausted. We set up in the rain and hunkered down for a very cold, wet night. The next morning, we packed it up and headed upward into the karst plain and a small clearing called Union Camp. The sun was up, and because the horses were really carrying all our gear, we collected the trail upslope of Edwards Central, and we took a couple of E coronata specimens – but to be honest – I thought they were Evenus regalis at the time (in my defense – we were really exhausted!). About six days later, we returned to Edwards Central and camped for the remainder of the trip. By that time – I knew what we had (because we also collected regalis for direct comparison) and we managed to take a few more specimens along the logging road
The female came from Doyle’s Delight – the highest point in Belize at around 1,100m (Belize is basically a lowland country!). This site is about 35km north of and just one of several ridges that inch their way up to this elevation. It’s a several day hike in – and so we cheated. At the time, the British Military had a training post in Belize, and as part of a training exercise, they took about 15 people up to the ridge in an old Huey helicopter. The catch is that Hurricane Dean was headed towards the country. We assumed that the Brits knew enough about the storm not to risk our necks. Later, we found out that they thought that we knew more about the forecast then they did – and that we must have been making a sound decision. Turns out that we got lucky, and the storm veered north into the Yucatan, leaving us in the edges. We had one very windy night and I have to say that tying hammock tents to palm trees during a hurricane is not the best decision. Palms are very flexible – and it is amazing how much they bob and weave during a windy night! The next day the storm had passed, and this female was waiting for us – the only specimen collected on our 12 days up there.
Photo Montage B – Our hammock tents strung out above the mud in the forest. The logging trail up – which despite how bad it looks was great collecting. Hurricane Rita did most of the damage to the surrounding forest a year before we hiked in – not the logging itself. Our jungle kitchen - Note the rain-roof over the fire, and the deluxe jungle benches for lounging around.
Photo montage C - The Huey landing on the ridge – it took three trips for them to get everyone and our gear up there.. We even packed a generator – and black-lighted quite a bit while we were up there (Jan Meerman is big into Sphingidae and Saturniidae). Me (left) and Paul Labus (right) doing what butterfly collectors do in Belize after dark. (It turns out that botanists and mycologists kill evenings the same way!). Paul is a co-worker who samples for me quite a bit in Belize.
So – here’s my crack at it!
John
________________________________________________
After thinking long and hard – I decided that my single Hairstreak would be Evenus coronata. Not only is it a gorgeous bug, but the only two places I collected it were quite an adventure.
The male came from the Columbia Forest Reserve in Belize. We hired four Maya guides (and two of their horses) from the village of San Jose to take us into the Columbia Forest for a 10 day sampling trip. The first half of the hike followed a very muddy logging road up hill, and it rained constantly during the hike in. Mud caked to our boots with every step, adding pounds to our feet as we trudged up slope. When we finally arrived at our halfway point, Edwards Central (elevation 700m), we were exhausted. We set up in the rain and hunkered down for a very cold, wet night. The next morning, we packed it up and headed upward into the karst plain and a small clearing called Union Camp. The sun was up, and because the horses were really carrying all our gear, we collected the trail upslope of Edwards Central, and we took a couple of E coronata specimens – but to be honest – I thought they were Evenus regalis at the time (in my defense – we were really exhausted!). About six days later, we returned to Edwards Central and camped for the remainder of the trip. By that time – I knew what we had (because we also collected regalis for direct comparison) and we managed to take a few more specimens along the logging road
The female came from Doyle’s Delight – the highest point in Belize at around 1,100m (Belize is basically a lowland country!). This site is about 35km north of and just one of several ridges that inch their way up to this elevation. It’s a several day hike in – and so we cheated. At the time, the British Military had a training post in Belize, and as part of a training exercise, they took about 15 people up to the ridge in an old Huey helicopter. The catch is that Hurricane Dean was headed towards the country. We assumed that the Brits knew enough about the storm not to risk our necks. Later, we found out that they thought that we knew more about the forecast then they did – and that we must have been making a sound decision. Turns out that we got lucky, and the storm veered north into the Yucatan, leaving us in the edges. We had one very windy night and I have to say that tying hammock tents to palm trees during a hurricane is not the best decision. Palms are very flexible – and it is amazing how much they bob and weave during a windy night! The next day the storm had passed, and this female was waiting for us – the only specimen collected on our 12 days up there.
Photo Montage B – Our hammock tents strung out above the mud in the forest. The logging trail up – which despite how bad it looks was great collecting. Hurricane Rita did most of the damage to the surrounding forest a year before we hiked in – not the logging itself. Our jungle kitchen - Note the rain-roof over the fire, and the deluxe jungle benches for lounging around.
Photo montage C - The Huey landing on the ridge – it took three trips for them to get everyone and our gear up there.. We even packed a generator – and black-lighted quite a bit while we were up there (Jan Meerman is big into Sphingidae and Saturniidae). Me (left) and Paul Labus (right) doing what butterfly collectors do in Belize after dark. (It turns out that botanists and mycologists kill evenings the same way!). Paul is a co-worker who samples for me quite a bit in Belize.
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