10/10 ant-mimicking mantids recommend tropical fieldwork. Canon 60D, 100 mm macro diffuse speedlight on subject, 2nd speedlight illuminates background

At this stage of the long dark Canadian winter, thoughts of tropical fieldwork should be going through the heads of all sensible entomologists…If you find yourself longing for the moist and humid insect filled paradise of the Neotropics, or even if that is what your research plans call for, let me introduce you to the wonders of French Guiana.

French Guiana is situated just north of Brazil on the Atlantic coast of South America, and remains to this day an overseas Department of France.  Both French and Creole are spoken, so Canadians should feel right at home.

The reserve is off limits to hunters, so large populations of monkeys and other large vertebrates are still present. Canon 60D, 300mm f4 L

French Guiana truly shines as a biodiversity and natural areas hotspot because unlike many countries in the Amazonian forest region, it has not experienced extensive deforestation. The immense expanses of unlogged rainforest are truly impressive.

The Red-throated Caracara, a specialist predator of social wasps is abundant (and awesome).  Canon 60D, 300mm f4 L

I have done all my tropical fieldwork at the Nouragues station, supported by an annual grant program that seeks to assist visiting scientists with the travel and logistical expenses involved with a tropical field season.  If the pictures above do not whet your appetite, please feel free to browse a more extensive collection here.

Inselberg des Nouragues at The Nouragues Reserve: the camp is right below this impressive rock. Canon 450D, 18-55 IS, helicopter

The 1000 km ² Nouragues reserve is located approximately 100 km SSW of Cayenne, and was established in 1995 to be both a refuge free of development and to facilitate research on Neotropical forest dynamics.

There are two research camps, the Inselberg Camp, situated just beneath a 420 m granite mountain, the Inselberg des Nouragues, and the camp at Saut Pararé, situated just below a series of high rapids on the Arataye River. The camps are accessible by helicopter, or you can take a motorized canoe (pirogue) to the Saut Pararé camp.  Both camps are administered by the CNRS (Centre Nationale de Recherche Scientifique) which has an office in Cayenne. Field costs are €20/day for students and postdocs and €35 per day for established researchers. Travel to the station can be expensive, but sharing the cost of helicopters/pirogues with other researchers can bring the costs down considerably.

Motorized pirogues can take you up and downriver. The skill of these boat crews as they navigate the rock filled channels is amazing to behold. Canon 60D, 18-55 mm IS

Access to various parts of the forest is facilitated by an extensive trail system (see map). Data on tree species and flowering/fruiting phenology in two large research plots at the Inselberg Camp are available. At the Parare camp, there are many trails, although not as extensive as at the Inselberg camp, as well as access to riverine and palm swamp habitats. Lists of species of birds, bats, fish and trees are available, and there is an impressive list of scientific data already published.

The two camps in the Reserve. Trails marked in red. ArcView with some Landsat Imagery and trails courtesy of Valentine Alt

The camps are comfortable, with covered shelters (carbets) for sleeping and eating, and there is electricity and running water at each station (it is the rainforest!). There is also a satellite internet connection which is adequate for email and keeping in touch with labs and colleagues. Food is provided, and is quite good (as one might expect at a French field station!), cooking/cleaning duties are shared.

20s exposure Canon S5IS, tripod, hacked firmware (CHDK)

If you are a student or a researcher at the planning or pre-planning stages of a Neotropical research program, there is no better time than now to submit a research proposal to the scientific committee of the station. The recently announced call for proposals will fund projects to a maximum of €9000, which would nicely cover the transportation and field costs for a several-month expedition. The deadline is Feb. 14, 2013. For more information, the details are available here.

Eciton army ants…Go see some now!
Canon 60D, 100 mm macro diffuse speedlight on subject, 2nd speedlight illuminates background

My name is Sean McCann, and I am a PhD student in biology at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada. I am a passionate amateur photographer and a lover of the outdoors.

I grew up not far from here in Victoria BC, on Vancouver Island, where I also did an undergraduate biology degree at UVic.

My background is in entomology, and I have completed a masters degree in Florida on mosquito reproductive ecology.

This blog will be a place to show some of my photos, communicate my research and my insights, and to reach out to the public at large. For some images that I shoot, I will try to give some details to how the shots were achieved, especially if they used any unusual techniques.

Here is a picture my brother took of me a few years back, with a vacuum device for collecting yellowjackets from their nest….I have much better techniques now!

Somewhere to the right will be a link to my flickr photostream where you can see a selection of my recent images.  I will also try to maintain a blogroll, for pages that catch my fancy and inspire me. As for what else I will put up, well I am not too sure.  I am hoping for suggestions!

As an aside, Ibycter (in the url and blog title) refers to the species that I study, the Red-throated Caracara, a Falconid found from Central America to southern Brazil. Expect to hear much about this species and its environment in the future.

A Red-throated Caracara, in the rainforest of French Guiana. This was shot with a Canon S5IS compact superzoom in 2009.

A large part of what my lab does is chemical ecology of insects.  We study the chemicals that mediate communication, defense, and foraging of all kinds of insects.

Orchid bees are amazingly beautiful insects, often iridecent or boldly striped. The males of these bees are attracted to strong scents, and they reputedly use these to gather up a group of other males, presumably to display to females.

Knowing this, on every field trip to the jungle, I have brought along cotton dental wicks and clove oil. These would serve well should we need to numb a broken tooth in an emergency, but the main purpose was to attract orchid bees.

Watch closely in the video as this male Eufriesea ornata gathers clove oil with his forelegs, transfers it to his midlegs, and finally tucks the fluid into special spongy tissues in his hind tibiae.

Orchid bees don’t only collect nice smelling scents… They are also attracted to foul smelling substances such as carrion and feces.

A male orchid bee gathers feces.
Canon 60D, EF 50 mm macro, f13, undiffused flash from MR14EX macro ring light.

A Robber Fly gets in on that Orchid Bee Look which is so hot right now. Canon 60D EF 70-300 IS. 1/60s F8

These filthy little bastards are beautiful and fun to watch however, so my advice is this:

Next time you go to the Neotropics (south Florida included), bring some methyl salicylcate, clove oil, or cineole and attract those bees!

Euglossa orchid bees are smaller and metallic green…Also a good look.
Canon Powershot S2IS, Raynox DCR250, foam bowl flash diffuser

References:

1. PHYLOGENY AND BIOLOGY OF NEOTROPICAL
ORCHID BEES (EUGLOSSINI)Annu. Rev. Entomol. 2004. 49:377–404

doi: 10.1146/annurev.ento.49.072103.115855

2. ORCHID BEES DON’T NEED ORCHIDS: EVIDENCE FROM THE
NATURALIZATION OF AN ORCHID BEE IN FLORIDA

Ecology, 87(8), 2006, pp. 1995–2001

2006