After departing from T.F Green airport on December 30th and traveling for 8 hours, I arrived at the San Jose International airport, and from there I took a taxi to where I would meet the rest of the team. I met the scientists, along with the rest of the Earthwatch volunteers at the rendezvous point, a DoubleTree hotel just a few miles from the airport. We spent the night there after introducing ourselves, and then in the morning it was finally time to make our way to the La Selva Biological Station where we would be staying for the next six days. After being shown to the cabins we would be staying in, and given a tour of the grounds, we were given an introductory talk from the station director, as well as one from Dr. Dyer about what we would be doing with our time in La Selva. After that it was time to head out into the field to collect caterpillars for the first time.
Before venturing into the forest, we were given some helpful hints on where to find them. Caterpillars prefer to feed on Pipers the most, a plant that comes in many different species but can always be identified by its elbow-like knobs where its branches split, along with the shape of its leaves. Any caterpillars we found were placed into plastic bags, along with the specific leaves it was feeding on to be brought back to the lab for further observation. Every bag was also marked with where on the forest trail it was found so it can be recorded back at the lab. After searching for a few hours, many various caterpillars were collected by the volunteers and I, including a very interesting fuzzy black caterpillar with a brightly colored face and antennae. We returned back from the forest around 6pm and brought our bags of caterpillars to the Ambient Lab where they would be reared for observation. After dinner, we were given a lecture from Dr Dyer on the importance of plant-caterpillar-parasitism interactions.
