Azteca Ants - Annika

Hi! My name is Annika Salzberg and I, along with Kate (from the first blog post), am working in Dr. Kaspari's lab with his PhD student Jane Lucas on Azteca ants. I'm a rising sophomore at Haverford College, majoring in Biology - with plans to become an entomologist. I'll be telling you a bit about life on Barro Colorado Island and show you some of the cool stuff Kate and I have been doing!

This is our lab space, where we meet every morning before going out in the field.

The view upon arrival on BCI

A crocodile swimming past the BCI dock

When you arrive on the island, the first buildings you pass as you walk up from the dock are the two labs. There, you'll find offices and labs equipped with everything we need for our indoor experiments.  

The space I use when I need to work with chemicals

Though I've been working a lot with all the various projects the lab is running right now, I've been focused on looking at the effect of antibiotics on various invertebrates. We're examining how the elimination of fungus or bacteria affects creatures like millipedes, isopods, termites, and cockroaches. A the moment, I'm monitoring 120 millipedes!

The lab buildings, with the dock behind them

The cafeteria where everyone on the island has their meals

An average day for our group generally consists of field work in the morning, and lab work in the afternoon. Weather-wise, this is pretty convenient, since it rains more often than not in the afternoon - though the few times we've been caught out in a thunderstorm have been pretty fun! 

Above pictured are Jane Lucas, Kate, and myself, all working on various projects. Today, we went on a long hike to find 30 Azteca nests for Kate's project. We placed seedlings both underneath the nests (resulting in us all being bitten many, many times) and 10 meters away. Kate will be returning to all the seedlings once a week to check on their growth.

Lastly, here are some creatures I've photographed around the island! One of the most exciting parts about being in the tropics is the incredibly biodiversity one finds, even on such a small island. Click on the images to enlarge them!

Cane Toad

Yellow-headed gecko

The cafeteria windows at night attract many insects

A late-night visitor outside my dorm

Pseudoscorpion

Tungara frog

Passing around a giant cockroach

Sphinx moth found on a night hike

A tarantula discovered on a night hike

This grasshopper was about 5 or 6  inches long!

Thanks for reading!