03.01.2019
Author: Eleanor
Last night we discovered that the lodge owns the sun. Usually light trapping consists of a slightly precarious medley of bulbs, car batteries, wires, and of course duct tape. We were therefore completely taken aback by the blinding array of waterproof bulbs and generator that confronted us. We weren’t the only ones in awe of this monster of a light trap and soon the sheet was teaming with an assortment of bugs so diverse that they would certainly put any pick and mix stand to shame. From majestic Saturniidae moths with see through windows in their wings to the comical praying mantids using their little hooked arms to shuffle up the sheet like very green climbers scaling an ice sheet.
Between bouts of that well practised “please-stop-biting-me-mosquito” dance, we hopefully rummaged through the nearby vegetation looking for any signs of titan beetles before racing for shelter every time the ever-present drizzle started to pelt. At 5.15am after ten hours of titan-less light trapping, we headed back to the lodge, sleepy and slightly munched but still stubbornly undefeated. We’ll be back tomorrow.
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