January 2007 November 2007 June 2008 September–December 2008
Thanks to a grant from the National Science Foundation (OISE-0832204) I had the distinct privilege of spending close to four months (9/08-12/08) in El Salvador. The project was in close collaboration with ecologists Oliver Komar of SalvaNATURA and Francisco Serrano of Bioproductores. Their expertise in matters of ecology and the environment in the country are exceptional and this work couldn't have been done without them.
Most of my field work was done outside the national park on the premises of a butterfly farm run by Francisco (the butterflies I worked with were not farmed however).
I had pretty good luck on the farm. My field assistant Reynaldo and I caught 2-3 C. lacinia on average a day and found about 150 total. Not bad at all!
There was also quite a bit of variety of the butterfly species on the premises.
We also found a new Chlosyne to me called Chlosyne erodyle. This a pretty little butterfly with brilliant and contrasting red and yellow on its wings.
Found several other great finds during my time there. To quote Francisco, Evenus regalis (the regal hairstreak) is “one of the great beauties of the neotropics”:
Adelpha lycorias (Rayed Sister) was another one of my favorites which would often swoop in out of nowhere and then typically disappear again.
Dynamine mylitta is a cool little nymphalid whose brilliant blue dorsal wing is not typically visible but incredibly beautiful when it is.
I bought a lot of bananas for one two week stay at the farm. Because there was no electicity at the farm and no town for miles it was important to have a lot of food in stock. Unfortunately my bananas went bad. I placed them on the deck for a moment while I was doing some cleaning but when I came back for them I found butterflies, Taygetis in particular. Butterflies LOVE rotten bananas. So, I left the rotten bananas out on my deck. This was one of my favorite “captures”, a Zaretis callidryas. No, that’s not a leaf below… that’s the Zaretis!
Last but not least, everyone’s favorite butterfly from Central America, the magnificent blue morpho (Morpho peleides). I see lots of these, they are fairly common, but it can be quite difficult to get a good picture of one. I spent some time trying to get a good action shot. With my cheap little “coolpix” this was difficult but I did get one picture than can be distinguished as a blue butterfly.
It wasn’t all fun and butterflies at the farm however. There was quite a bit of down time, particularly on rainy or windy days, when I would read in my room. The lack of electricity made working my computer rather difficult. Also, on occasion I would do silly things like take pictures of myself dancing.
When I wasn’t at the farm I was typically either in San Salvador or Aguilares. Actually, much of my time was spent going to these different parts of the country. The Hotel Happy House in San Salvador was my “home base”… excellent place to stay and catch up on email.
I had a great time in El Salvador. I was also fortunate enough to get the data I needed to complete my data collection for this particular research project. Now that I am back home though I need to ANALYZE all that data… that part of the adventure, I would say, can be just as exhilarating though and I’m looking forward to the next phase of exploration.