Day 4 Butterflys

Day 4

     The babbling rainforest bugs and occasional click of the gecko provided the perfect lullaby to promote a restful night of sleep. The repose ended early as we woke up in time to attend a 6:30 AM breakfast planned to allow us time to pioneer two excursions new to the Seeds of Change repertoire—a butterfly farm and a dry forest hike. As students flew their cabins excited to visit a butterfly farm, short bursts of downpour served as reverberation of last night’s thundering rainstorm. The constant wetness only exaggerated the anticipation to visit the dry forest. Before hopping on a bus to the butterfly farm, we gobbled down the eggs with onion, fresh pineapple, watermelon, rice and beans.

      Because our group was the first to visit the butterfly farm, we were greeted with shuttering cameras, the opportunity to suggest a name for the farm, and yerba-buena(mint) lemonade. Although we visited the farm to see butterflies, a surprisingly-social sloth was spotted in the trees at the entrance of the butterfly tent. In addition to energizing the sluggish students, the sloth pronounced the environmental consideration employed in this family’s butterfly business model. The majority of the forest on the property has been preserved, with a little space set aside for butterfly tents. The tents contain tiny tubs containing butterfly eggs, small plants draped with net to hold pupa, and larger habitats housing full grown butterfly species. The largest species in Costa Rica is the Morpho, which sports iridescent blue on its inner wing and and camouflaging owl-like pattern on the outer. 

      Hours later, we were reminded of our butterfly farm visit as we spotted the blue morpho in a more natural habitat during the dry forest hike. Butterflies were not the only wildlife we spotted on the five mile hike through primary and secondary Costa Rican rainforest. “Monkey combs”, seed pods spider monkeys use to comb their hair and ward off parasites; “hugging” trees, which are actually covered in spikes for protection; shedded cicada shells; cactus trees, whose upper branches are covered in the succulents; a guanacaste, Costa Rica’s national tree; spider monkeys, white faced monkeys, and an anteater were all among the flora and fauna we observed on the nature walk, we also heard howler monkeys but did not see them. Gabriel, Pablo, Jose, and Ibrahim shared their knowledge of Costa Rican ecology as well as bioinformatics. Beetle larvae found in dead trees provided the perfect platform for discussing how gut microbe genomes can be sequenced and analyzed to find the genes which code for cellulose enzymes. On the walk, this information was interrupted by a troop of spider monkeys flinging feces and attracting the attention of our cameras.     

     After we returned to Finca, science continued and a presentation was resumed when Jose and Ibrahim presented their bioinformatics projects from graduate university studies, which included analyzing the genomes of beetles and sRNA. In addition to enlightening us about the combination of Costa Rican ecology and computer-based bioinformatics, these presentations provided an awe-inspiring model about how bioinformatic presentations should be conducted and how graphs should be presented. The examples of graphs were especially appreciated by the students, who had spent hours of the afternoon exploring IMG and Excel to ascertain the correct display of data. 
   

     The long day of walking, observing, and thinking was complemented by delicious meals from Finca la Anita and Mrs. Aracele’s home in Colonia Libertad, but the truly perfect way to end the day is to get sleep and prepare for more bioinformatics tomorrow!

Sophie Jaro