I especially like insects because of their incredible diversity in bodies. Imagine all of the potential body shapes that could be achieved on a segmented, six-legged frame – flying, walking, burrowing, small, large… nearly all of it has been tried by some species. An interesting evolutionary question is to ask why some parts of this…

While tagging trees during a transect, we found this strange creature walking up the trunk of a tree. It was about an inch long and looked like a Tribble, with a shaggy white burden on its back. The fuzz was soft, but I wasn’t sure what it was made of. Even a brief touch dislodged…

The rainy season isn’t due for a few more months, but we were drenched yesterday by a late afternoon thunderstorm. Laying in a hammock at the lab, watching lightning flashes across the lake and the far shore erased by the clouds, I realized not only by how happy I was not to be in the…

We’re nearly finished with our transects here. Over the past month we’ve installed fifty 50 meter x 2 meter transects, tagging all plants with a diameter greater than 1 centimeter. Today we finished the last one – 5,419 stems in all. Nearly all of these are small – seedlings, or small vines. Large plants require…