Mud and Humidity

Our most recent project involves placing a bunch of clay caterpillars on plants in a study plot. The first time we did it, we used wood glue that was apparently water soluble...not so good for a rain forest. Then we placed more caterpillars in a successional plot that was cut a year ago, and did a herbivory estimate (that's one of the photos).
In terms of things that bite you, La Selva is about a 6 out of 10. The insects are pretty prevalent, and if you go sans Deet, you will get munched. There is also a real snake presence. I have seen at least one viper every day for the past several days. The one I saw yesterday was in our path. It was muddy, and thus hard to see the coloration (that's why our resource leader, Tania is giving it a shower in the photo). Two people walked over the top of it before I saw it. Awesome. There are also these little darlings called bullet ants. They are a couple of inches long and bite and sting. As I write this there are two of them in a vial on the desk and they look angry.