Expedition Blog

On The Water

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:54:02 -0600

The image is not the beach; it’s a river. One comment (from Charles Goodnight) mentioned Burrell Boom, and here you see it. The name derives from the logging days, when mahogany was floated down the river. A chain strung across the river caught the logs, which made a booming sound when they struck each other, near where the Burrell family kept watch. Peaceful now.

—Jim Carpenter, Corozal, Corozal District

Behaviors

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:35:25 -0600

In our first blog entry, we discussed that the genus Polistes exhibits lots of interesting behaviors. Here are two. Up top, P. exclamans workers fan the nest to cool it down. It’s been pretty hot here these last few days, and the wasps know how to take care of it: Air conditioning . . . well, at least they’ve installed fans. Pretty cool, eh?

In the video, the queen of this P. major colony is exhibiting a typical dominance behavior: Tail wagging. Polistes queens do this, presumably to indicate their presence. In Polistes, the queen often has to maintain her dominant role through aggression, so letting the subordinates know she’s on the nest is could be key to keeping them in line.

—Kurt Pickett, Corozal, Corozal District

Way Up North

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:16:19 -0600

Today we travelled north to Corozal, about 10 miles south of the border with Mexico. It’s just an ugly place, as you can see. On the way, we collected quite a lot. We found more Polybia, Mischocyttarus, a nice colony of Polistes major (see next blog for more, including a video), and a color variant of Polistes exclamans. The P. exclamans makes our sixth Polistes of the trip, and P. exclamans is not reported from Belize. That makes the second new record for Polistes from Belize (P. major, and now P. exclamans). Hopefully we’ll pick up a couple more up here tomorrow.

—Kurt Pickett, Corozal, Corozal District

A Small Polybia Nest

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 08:09:29 -0600

The nests of incipient colonies can be quite interesting, as they can not only reveal how nests are initiated and how construction patterns proceed, but they can also shed light on how the various groups are related. Nest construction in paper wasps has been used to elucidate evolutionary relationships for some time. People who have studied this recently include Bob Jeanne, and my advisor from grad school, John Wenzel.

—Kurt Pickett, Burrell Boom, Belize District

Polistes pacificus: Five and Counting

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 07:54:23 -0600

That leaves only Polistes apicalis, and then we’ll have collected every species that’s been reported from Belize. Of course, there’s still the putative new species. And the P. major find is a new record for the country. The Polistes progress has been a bit slow and patchy, but we are making progress.

Jim already has many vouchers of this P. pacificus, but I don’t, and it’s hard to make identifications without a nice series of specimens. So it’s great for me and UVM’s collection.

I neglected to mention that we also collected a specimen of the genus Brachygastra yesterday. This is the first we’ve come across that genus; the species is probably B. augusti, and if so, that would be the first record for that species in Belize. The specimen is in alcohol, so no good photo. If we come across another, we’ll be sure to post a shot.

—Kurt Pickett, Burrell Boom, Belize District

Weaver birds

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 20:54:33 -0600

We drove past these on the Hummingbird Highway two days ago. Lovely.

—Kurt Pickett, Burrell Boom, Belize District

Mayalandia

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 20:29:42 -0600

We haven’t posted about the Mayans yet, but of course that is one of the celebrated attractions of Belize — not just monumental Mayan ruins, but the many Mayans around today (Mayan cuisine rocks). Well, the reason for our reticence is that we’ve searched ever so assiduously for wasp nests on Mayan ruins, and have come up empty. That would be some image for this blog . . . but we’re running out of time. So in the meantime, a couple of images from our search. And we will carry on the search to the end.

—James Carpenter, Burrell Boom, Belize District

Chaga Khan

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 17:00:01 -0600

In my humble defense, Chaga’s disease — spread by disgusting blood-sucking bugs in the genus Triátoma — is just . . . just awful. And I’m pretty sure my learnin’ taught me that these vile nightmares on six legs just can’t get enough of thatched roofs. Just check out Lori Steven’s website, where she says:

“Chagas disease: Chagas disease, caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, afflicts up to 11 million people in Latin America and causes potentially life-threatening disease in up to one third of those infected . . . Reducing new infections of Chagas disease ultimately depends on vector control.”

See. Control. That’s what the experts say, Jim. Maybe Jim is the Triátoma King, and can control them with his mind, but I prefer material protection. And its a bivvy, Jim.

—Kurt Pickett, Burrell Boom, Belize District

Architectural Adaptation

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:30:34 -0600

We came to Pook’s Hill because we had specimens of Protopolybia collected here, a genus we’ve not run across on this trip. We didn’t find any, but we did encounter something unexpected: a dense population of Parachartergus, probably P. smithii. The concrete pylons on which some of the cabanas are constructed are not just a suitable nesting substrate — they’re the same color as the envelopes of the nest. The colorful orange wasp stands out against the concrete, but the nests are hard to spot. Thus, we found about a dozen nests, both active and abandoned, admirably adapted to local ecology.

—James Carpenter, Burrell Boom, Belize District

No Mozzies on Him

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:18:04 -0600

Last night, we stayed at Pook’s Hill Jungle Lodge, where the cabanas were thatched. High style here, but it ignited Kurt’s paranoia about Chaga’s disease, so he pulled out his mosquito net. He looked mummified, but claimed he wouldn’t have to worry about mozzies either. Probably not; we’ve seen about six all trip.

—James Carpenter, Burrell Boom, Belize District

“Windows on the World, Man”. . . Again

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:46:08 -0600

Okay, I know: Enough with the windows already. I just had to post these new shots from our fourth Metapolybia colony.

—Kurt Pickett, Burrell Boom, Belize District

Like Mice, with Wings

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 19:35:30 -0600

That’s what one of my mentors, Norman Johnson, used to say about all Polistes. Of course, that’s because his parasitic wasps are more like grains of sand with wings. To give you an idea, his wasps lay their eggs in the eggs of other insects. You gotta be tiny to do that, and so by comparison just about any other wasp would seem big, but I digress.

Anyway, despite Norm’s relatively twisted world view, the Polistes carnifex shown here really are like mice with wings. Well, actually, Jim and I have started calling them “hummingbird wasps.” They’re about that size. No, really. (Well, okay; maybe they’re a tad smaller . . ..)

—Kurt Pickett, Pook’s Hill, Belize District

A Very Good Day

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 19:10:52 -0600

Today we travelled north, stopping along the way to collect. We found lots of Mischocyttarus colonies, as usual. But we found a number of Polistes carinfex colonies as well, some with many individuals and lots of larvae. The Polistes colonies we’ve found so far have been small, with few adults, so it looks like we may be entering a better area for Polistes. Either that, or we’ve just figured out how to hunt P. carnifex well.

When we arrived at our room for the night, we also found lots of abandoned Parachartergus nests, and one active colony (shown in the photo). This genus builds on flat surfaces — like the Metapolybia from previous posts — but the envelope paper is more fragile, and the combs (as you can see in the photo, there are multiple) underneath are not flat against the substrate, but each is attached by way of a single pedicel, similar to the was Polistes colonies attach their combs.

This is the first Parachartergus colony we’ve collected this trip. All in all, this was one of our best days.

—Kurt Pickett, Pook’s Hill, Belize District

UPDATE: We found a ton more Parachartergus today (April 29). See Jim’s blog here.

Heading North

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 07:54:45 -0600

We’ve pretty much found what we’re gonna find around Punta Gorda, we figure. So, we’re off to the north, toward the areas Orange Walk and Corozal. Don’t know how long it will be before we’re back online, but we’ll keep blogging daily.

Later . . ..

—Kurt Pickett, just NW of Punta Gorda, Toledo District

A Room With A View

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 06:19:28 -0600

This video quite nicely shows light passing through the windows of a Metapolybia nest.

—Kurt Pickett, just NW of Punta Gorda, Toledo District

First Sting, Forced

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 22:50:23 -0600

And from the yeller wasps, no less. And no, it’s not because I stuck my finger near the nest in the video from the last post (that was just for size reference). This came later, when we were collecting returning foragers and wasps that fled when I all-but flawlessly collected the second Metapolybia nest today (with the first nest, virtually all the wasps fell directly into Jim’s net when I cut the nest down . . . sublime perfection.). Anyway, the sting came when I accidentally pinched a single wasp between my finger an the collecting jar. In other words, she only stung me because she was absolutely forced to. Yeller wasps . . ..

—Kurt Pickett, just NW of Punta Gorda, Toledo District

Redemption

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 21:53:37 -0600

So, yesterday I . . . um, like, totally . . . botched the collection of the first nest of Metapolybia ever recorded from Belize. Sigh. It was a hard pill to swallow . . . I felt like crap, and Jim was peeved, and then our snarky friends started teasing me about it in the comments section of the blog. Sigh.

Anyway, today I made up for it. Jim and I came upon two Metapolybia colonies. I stood on the car, machete in hand, and Jim stood below with the net. With one quick slice, we not only got the envelopes in near-pristine condition, but the comb too (which is difficult in this group, as all the cells of the comb are attached directly to the flat substrate . . . in this case, a concrete wall).

And if this masterful collection of the nests wasn’t enough, check out the photos (yeah, I know: the background could’ve been better. We didn’t have black cardboard with us, okay?). You can really see the windows quite well, especially in the video.

So, now a sigh of relief. Plus, Jim is being nice to me again (okay, that’s a joke. He was being nice to me even after I damaged the nest . . . well, I mean, sorta. Okay, he wasn’t.).

—Kurt Pickett, just NW of Punta Gorda, Toledo District

Polistes carnifex: #4

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 21:53:35 -0600

Not the best photo ever, for sure, but the next was pretty high . . . had to extend all telescopic elements of the net to reach it. From the distance, we thought this one might be P. major as well, but once we got it back to our room, it was clearly P. carnifex.

That makes four species of Polistes. We’re still after the putative new one, and P. apicalis . . . at least.

—Kurt Pickett, just NW of Punta Gorda, Toledo District

Tracks

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 21:21:29 -0600

Most of the time, we are nowhere near the beach, and I would like to be able to offer visual proof, in the form of a Google Earth places file — but the resolution for Belize localities doesn’t provide much detail as far as I’ve been able to see. Herewith coordinates for some places we’ve collected, listed chronologically as we’ve traveled, in case readers want to check for themselves:

17°06'14"N 89°04'09"W
16°43'59"N 89°59'11"W
16°44'44"N 89°00'37"W
16°17'32"N 88°57'42"W
16°14'40"N 88°59'33"W
16°07'00"N 88°54'27"W

—James Carpenter, just NW of Punta Gorda, Toledo District

“You Are So Dirty”

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 09:52:20 -0600

The guys at the butterfly farm said that this kiss on the cheek means I’m filthy. I don’t deny that, after a week in the field. But I think it means I’m sweet.

—Kurt Pickett, just NW of Punta Gorda, Toledo District