Off on a field trip to Costa Rica

Yesterday afternoon and evening I captured about 100 shots of lightning. I will not know how good they are until I can see them on my image processing computer at home. It looks like another storm is building up....wahoo!

We have passed hundreds of gated mansions with walled parklike grounds. It seems that some of the planet's wealthy like Costa Rica. The manicured gardens do not reflect much love for nature though.

Maybe Rush Limbaugh was thinking after all when he threatened to move to Costa Rica (with their universal health care) if Obama got re-elected. His buddies must have passed the word.Here's a new photo of my granddaughter taken by her dad:

Great photo!I can tell the dragonfly is in genus Epitheca.

I have never been able to convince my kids that dragonflies are anything short of dangerous, and now they are too grown up to take cute pictures. Nice job!!!I'm not jealous at all! Did I tell you my daughter was an electronics technician in the US Navy? Off topic?okay...

When I was a kid, dragonflies and ladybugs were the two kinds of bugs that we would never kill.

Me too, but I would add praying mantis and fireflies to this did not kill list (at least intentionally).

And Bitbugs and RolyPolies and butterflies and moths but mayflies were fair game.

Well I have to admit that we killed a lot of bugs, one at a time ... and mounted them on 4x8 soft fiberboard. Butterflies, moths, dragonflies, damselflies, beetles, etc. With common names and scientific names. The advantages of having a university zoology professor for a dad -- he would take us to areas that he wanted to take his classes on fieldtrips to for testing.Enjoy

... and walking sticks! All off the kill list.I still let pretty much any bugs live except flies, mosquitoes and any bugs with nasty feet that are trying to rustle my food. Hang 'em high!

I am home now and have processed a few images from the trip. Megaloprepus caerulatus male, this damselfly is over 5 inches long with an 8-inch wingspan. It is one of largest odonates in the world.This a link to the video taken by one of my friends of a female ovipositing and flying. I first saw this in slow motion and it is incredible. This was the first time he had used this point and shoot camera, which make the video even more amazing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnlI1D7_n5IThis second video shows a male guarding a female while flies around near an oviposition site. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DL7jaHJ1-KM___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This is Perithemis n. sp.. A new undescribed species we found at La Selva.___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The steamy jungle reclaiming a footbridge across a small stream at La Selva.___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ A jungle stream at La Selva.___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ A lightning storm at Palo Verde Field Station, Costa Rica. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ American Crocodiles, Crocodylus acutus, lie in wait for unsuspecting tourists below the bridge over the Rio Grande de Trcoles at the Carretera Pacifica.___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This is our whole motley crew at Arenal Observatory Lodge with the Arenal volcano in the background. This is the cleanest we were during the whole trip. Some of us are wearing a dragonfly t-shirt we made to commemorate the trip.____________________________________________________________________________________________________________I don't know if I will have time to post anymore before I leave in 2 days for the Dragonfly Society of the Americas annual meeting in Pennsylvania. After that, I will be back home July 8.Enjoy

Sharp clear images, beautiful colors. Neat stuff.You do good work there, Tanypteryx.Do you present your pics at State College or just drink a lot of beer?Congratulations. Looking forward to more.Edited by AZPaul3, : No reason given.Edited by AZPaul3, : damn, just kant spel!

Thanks.Hopefully, we will drink some beer. Several people are using my photomicrographs in their presentations, but I won't be specifically showing my Costa Rica shots. One of my friends from Oregon that was on the CR trip is giving a presentation on the trip using shots from quite a few of us.I am pleased that my grad student from years ago is giving a presentation and one of his students is also presenting. These meetings are a lot of fun, seeing old friends, some that I have known more than 30 years. With a small society like DSA, it is easy to get to know almost everyone, at least those who come to the meetings.One of the really great things about the Costa Rica trip was the number of specialists in fields of science that were along. Quite a few people were also master naturalists, so we always had experts who could identify all of the organisms we encountered as well as all the plants. One of the guys was an expert in all the modes of coloration that you find in insects especially dragonflies and also in dragonfly color vision, which includes up to 10 different pigments in the eyes. Their color vision acuity is much more precise than ours and they see a wider wavelength range than we do.It is really a blast to spend so much time emmersed in science when we get together. And the beer!

One of my long time friends wrote a bit on his blog about our trip. It is a good read illustrated with his excellent images. http://bryanpfeiffer.com/...and-providence-among-the-unknown

I finally got back to my Costa Rica photos and got my first look at some shots of Strawberry Poison-Dart Frogs, (Oophaga pumilio, formerly Dendrobates pumilio).
These beautiful, tiny frogs were fairly common at La Selva Biological Station, but they were difficult to shoot because as soon as I approached them they would disappear into the moss or under a log.The first one was hiding in a bromeliad and I waited until he popped out to see if I was still there.According to Wikipedia, O. pumilio, while not the most poisonous of the Dendrobatids, is the most toxic member of its genus. This second frog was on a vine hanging across the trail and I was able to get a few shots before he climbed too high to shoot. _____________________________________________________________Edited by Tanypteryx, : No reason given.