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La
Selva Biological Station, Costa Rica
If
you really want to get into the nitty-gritty of how a rain
forest works, come to Costa Rica's internationally renowned
La Selva Biological Station and study caterpillars. Why? Because
caterpillars are major herbivores in the rain forest-and major
targets for both predators and parasites. Few creatures so
beautifully exemplify evolutionary forces at work as do caterpillars.
They are caught between plants, which devise toxins, glasslike
hairs, and so on to avoid being eaten, and predators and parasites,
which view plump larvae as the perfect meal-for themselves
or for their offspring. Many parasitic flies and wasps lay
their eggs in caterpillars, which provide the offspring with
food and safe lodging. Eventually the parasites emerge, killing
their host. Rapacious yet vulnerable, caterpillars thus have
been forced to develop a bizarre armory of survival skills,
such as incorporating plant toxins to protect themselves against
parasites.
Understanding
these complex strategies between diner and dinner, parasite
and victim, is essential to successfully preserving rain forests.
It is also essential to designing biologically sensible pest-control
strategies that target the correct pest at no cost to the
environment. For a third season with ecologists Dr. Lee Dyer
(Mesa State College) and Dr. Grant Gentry (University of California,
LA), volunteers will become caterpillar farmers, investigating
exactly how the caterpillars cope. Are specialists, which
dine on one toxic plant, for example, better able to fend
off parasites? What chemicals do caterpillars store against
enemies? Which flies and wasps might prove the best biological
controls against crop pests? Do forest fragments harbor flies
and wasps that help control pests, and hence are worth saving?
You'll
not lack for caterpillars: La Selva harbors an estimated 5,000
species of caterpillars, along with 4,500 moth, 500 butterfly,
2,000+ plant, and hundreds of bird and mammal species. This
1,500-hectare parcel of mostly virgin rain forest sitting
in the Caribbean lowlands acts as a magnet for tropical researchers
worldwide. With 18 years' combined field experience, much
of it in the tropics and at La Selva, Dyer and Gentry will
gladly teach you all you need to know. With a doctorate from
the University of Colorado, Dyer is an expert caterpillar
taxonomist and natural products chemist. Gentry, working on
his doctorate at the University of California, Los Angeles,
is a parasite taxonomist and an excellent naturalist.
Up
at dawn to the roars of howler monkeys, you'll switch off
between collecting 120 species of caterpillars and their host
plants in the forest and labeling, caring for, and observing
them back at the lab. You may also help analyze plant and
caterpillar toxins. Work runs until about 3 p.m. with a break
for lunch. If you need a breather from caterpillars, there's
good swimming, superb birding, and a host of other rainforest
projects to learn about.
•
1 9 9 9 and 2 0 0 0. T E A M S
• V: Jul 24-Aug 7 • VI: Dec 14-28 • Teams for
2000, call for details • Max team size: 12
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M E M B E R S ' . S H A R E . O F . C O S T S
from $1,495 •£930 • A$2,295 • ¥175,500
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R E N D E Z V O U S . S I T E
La Amistad Hotel, San José, Costa Rica
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F I E L D . C O N D I T I O N S
Expect lively discussions at meals in the dining room-good
food with a decidedly Costa Rican (rice-and-beans) flavor.
Tropical researchers rate La Selva's dorms, bunking three
to five per room with electricity, hot showers, and fans,
as "luxurious."
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