In my room, as I mentioned, I am have about 550 arachnids preserved in 95% ethanol. I have a Nikon stereoscope, and I have a fiber optic light to illuminate stuff.
With this scope I can look at small details of the spiders in high-resolution and this helps me group individuals of the same species. I spend a lot of time in front of this apparatus. After plenty of separation I quickly estimate I have about 70 species of arachnids (and when I say arachnids, I limit this to the true spiders, Opiliones (daddy-long legs), and Ricinulei - google them, they're cool - I am not including mites etc. because they are simply TOO diverse).
Every other morning I walk about 2.5 km to a nearby forest to collect leaf litter. I am taking litter samples from three different types of forest: and abandoned cacao plantation, secondary forest, and primary forest. My goal: to determine whether species diversity increases between these different successional stages. The results of this study will have conservational implications in addition to the fact that I imagine I have a few undiscovered species in my collection (as the leaf litter of the hyper-diverse tropics is sort of a final frontier for taxonomists). I will donate my specimens to the UCR for identification when the project is over and they will keep me updated as to what they find.
I owe much of the current success of this project to the practical expertise of my biologist host father and the equipment he has provided me. I finally feel like a real biologist and I'm happy to spend 12-13 hours per day working with the leaf litter (and that which I pull out).
If all goes well, I will be looking to publish the findings of this project in a smaller journal for tropical studies. This would be an ultimate success but I don't see it as an impossibility.
Will you have the new species named after you? Or perhaps, even better, Spider Terriblus Rileydog?
ReplyDeleteI have been inspired to initiate my own experiment. While Da was trimmming vines yesterday, I rolled in fox excrement in order to evaluate how the scent would change the behavior of the humans around me, and any dog who smelled me. Needless to say, it has made a big and pungent impression on all.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI have loads of leaf litter at my house on Hilton Head! When you are finished with all the leaf litter there...you are warmly invited to come here and work on my leaf litter!
ReplyDeletehey...I went through all the hurdles to become a "follower"...how bout some new NEWS?
ReplyDelete