Bunkhouse Biologists and FAQ

Living in the bunkhouse is a little like going back to summer camp. There are 8 of us sleeping in this room and 10 of us sharing the same bathroom (and sometimes the port-a-potty, when the indoor toilet gets overworked!) We also share our bunkhouse with the caterpillar zoo, and eat here too. All of us share duties like cooking, cleaning, food shopping, etc. Since most of us are teachers, we know it takes teamwork to make this expedition go smoothly!

I thought you might like seeing some of daily life in the bunkhouse. Remember that we work all day and after dinner, most of us spend the night working (and often fighting) with Blogger so that we can connect with you students back home. We have been getting to bed most nights around midnight. Even though we are busy working, we enjoy sharing our photos and videos from the day, and talking about our hometowns, schools, and families.

This morning we packed and left the Pearl River Wildlife Management area in Slidell and came back to New Orleans. We spent time at Tulane University in Rebecca's lab unpacking the caterpillars and working on the database. We will return tomorrow to wrap things up, but in the meantime, I am going out for some authentic Cajun food and maybe a little jazz.

I am going to post a bunch of FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS and answers below. I will save some of them for tomorrow as well since there are so many. I have LOVED getting your questions and I consulted with Rebecca and her team when I didn't know the answers.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS FROM YOU!

Did you get to meet Nicholas Cage?
No, but I know where Brad Pitt’s house is now! Maybe I will swing by and we can talk caterpillars!

What did the mansions look like?
I will post some pix this weekend—they are amazing!

We hope the teacher who reached for the Copperhead is okay.
She was VERY surprised but just fine. More people are bitten by copperheads
than any other snake in the US but usually the bite is not fatal, it just causes extreme pain and extensive scarring.

The swamp reminds us of the rainforest because of the variety of creatures.
You are right, there is great diversity here! But biodiversity is all around us, even in Kansas. Sometimes we just forget tolook!

How have the mystery caterpillars adapted to their environment?
We have seen many cool adaptations this week, including camouflage and mimicry. One of the coolest mimics I saw was too difficult to photograph, but it is a tiny inchworm that pretends to be a petiole (leaf stem) on grape leaves. It attached itself just like the petiole, but in the wrong place. It was really hard to find in the bag during zoo duty!

In civics we're watching a video on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and we were wondering, how did the Hurricane affect the caterpillar population?

Rebecca says that the caterpillar life cycles were completely off for a very long time. They would see caterpillars during the fall that were usually present in spring and vice versa.

How does this experiment affect the butterfly population?
Insects have a super high reproductive value, so the localized collecting couldn’t possibly make a dent in the butterfly population.

How do you handle poisonous caterpillars?

We have to mostly be careful of the fuzzy or spikey caterpillars because some of them have stinging hairs or spines. We try to pick them up on a leaf instead of with bare hands.

About how many species have Rebecca and her colleagues found?
Just this week we have found about 25 species.

What is the most interesting thing you have seen a caterpillar do?
Walking around half dead with parasitoids (like in the video I posted) is definitely the creepiest thing I have ever seen a caterpillar do! Some of the teachers actually got to see some of the larvae popping out of the caterpillar’s back!!!! UGH!

Where is the most common place you find caterpillars?

I found the highest diversity on oak trees during this expedition.

Your days sound very exciting. We think it is great that your research matches the predictions. Is it scary working with caterpillars infected with wasps?
It is a little creepy to think about but then again we have to remember that this is part of the natural food web around here. Luckily the wasps can’t hurt us (I am more worried about tipping the kayak, running into poison ivy, stepping on a poisonous snake, or running out of Diet Coke!)

How deep was the water?

In the bayou sometimes it was pretty shallow, I would guess about 4 feet. But on the river there are 20 ft holes. The locals thought we were pretty crazy to be kayaking on such high water….oops!

Did anyone almost flip over?
Yes, almost but not quite! Luckily the motor boats were slowing down for us.

How many caterpillars did you find?

I will let you know this weekend.

We are heading back to Tulane University tomorrow and will hopefully finalize the database.

We watched Ms Coleman's videos and they were very entertaining, we were worried that she was in peril at one point, but then we realized there were no alligators
She’s a crazy caterpillar hunter! She did film a gator today—check her later posts if you would like some gator drama!

Tell us about any Katrina impact you see in the bayou!
I still see trash way up high in the trees. We found an MRE (government-issued food pack, dehydrated) floating in the water yesterday, probably left over from Katrina. It was dried roast beef and veggies…delish!

We think it is very cool that you have to kayak to get to your desired destination. Sam wishes she was as cool as you. And she says don't go ocean kayaking. ;)
Well Sam is at least as cool as me! And yep, sea kayaks and ocean waves are not something I enjoyed when I tried it in Baja---YIKES!!!

Can caterpillars change into different colors? Say a lime green caterpillar crawled onto a dark green leaf, will it make the small adjustment to blend more or will it just stay the same.
No, caterpillars don’t have those cool melanophore cells that allow organisms like squid to change color. But we did find a little Gelichiid caterpillar that was clear except for the color of food it just ate!Is the increasing number of caterpillars and decreasing number of plants affect the food chain in Louisiana?Of course it does, and it affects more than just a chain, it affects the complex food web. Some organisms suffer from the increase in caterpillars (like plants) and some will benefit (like birds that eat caterpillars), but the balance of nature gets changed.

When you are dealing with the caterpillars and finding them do you need any special gear or equipment that you have to use?

We use the beat sheets, which are just wooden sticks with fabric stretched over them, and we use a stick or machete to beat the brush. Other than that, we just need lots of Ziplocs and sharpies for labeling! Rubber boots were a necessity and I sure wish I had gloves because we had to bushwhack through so much thorny blackberry vine.


How exactly do you catch the caterpillars from the trees in the swamp while your in the kayak?
Very carefully!

Have you found any caterpillars with the wasp larva in them?
Yes, more than I expected. I don’t have an exact number but I will try to find out when we finish the database this week.

Sounds like you're having a great time down there! I bet classifying the caterpillars is a lot like the classification we did on our insect projects.
It is, but there are not as many resources. There is one main field guide to caterpillars and not every species is in it. It feels a bit like detective work trying to ID them some days. It’s a good reminder that we never stop making new discoveries in science.

Are there any differences between the way diferent species reproduce?
Yes, I wrote a little bit about this on my blog, but Rebecca says that scientists still don’t know all there is to know about parasitoids because it is hard to follow the entire life cycle. They are learning new things about parasitoids every day during this study.