Day 2- Setting Up and going on our first hunt for caterpillars.

I hope you all were able to check out my blog. I had a great, comfortable flight, thank you for asking. Today we set up our reasearch area in the bunkhouse.

After lunch we headed out to the forest and began our search for caterpillars. At first we collected caterpillars and the plant it feeds from so they have food for the week while we observe them. Next we set up a plotting area with a 10 meter diameter and collected caterpillars, host plants and estimated the amount of leaves on each host plant. Tomorrow we plan to set up the caterpillars on the rearing rack and collect some data and then go back out into the field.

The caterpillars build tents in the trees for protection.