Meet the butterflies

A lot has happened in the past month, science-wise but also everything else-wise. But I'll start with the former.

So far, a big part of my time at STRI has been spent been working in the insectaries (or the MPZ, short for the MariPoZone), helping to maintain the butterfly stocks. Scientifically, this has been a fantastic introductory experience, where I've been able to learn about the biology of the butterflies maintained by the Gamboa Heliconius lab. But perhaps more importantly, the MPZ also a genuinely delightful place to work. The butterfly garden, maintained by the wonderful Remi, is as close to heaven on Earth as I've ever experienced, with lush tropical plants and an abundance of butterflies (and other critters, including turtles, red-eyed tree frogs and even caimans) unparalleled by anywhere else I've been. After the madness of Cambridge finals season, I feel like my daily walks around the flowers are healing my soul (or something like that). The work can be physically demanding, but it is incredibly rewarding to raise butterflies from eggs to caterpillars to pupae to butterflies again, and to see the stocks flourish.

A turtle stuck in the canals at the MPZ!

Philathrea butterfly

The butterfly cages themselves, feat. Heliconius melpomene plesseni

More recently, I've also had a bit of a change of scenery in the form of fieldwork. My favourite trip was to El Valle de Anton, a small mountain town a couple of hours away which is situated in the middle of a giant crater. It was wonderful to collect butterflies in such beautiful scenery (I cannot believe I get paid to do this), see how the fauna differs between landscapes... and also to experience a cool breeze for the first time since arriving in Panama. Excitingly, we are also planning a field trip to Ecuador in a couple of weeks! The sites we'll be visiting will be at high elevations - I wonder what the butterfly communities will be like there?

Driving into the cloud forests of El Valle feat. fellow intern Mosar

In the past couple of weeks, I've also started to assist with scientific projects in the lab. One of these projects (led by Annie and Bodo) is looking at how Parides butterfly wings develop during pupation. This involves dissecting pupae and imaging them whilst they're still alive, which made me a little squeamish at first (they are VERY gooey inside), but it has been fascinating to see what's actually going on during that mysterious life stage. Also, the wing scales are beautiful! 

A Parides pupa (I think it looks like an alien)

Parides scales under the microscope

A more challenging project has involved learning how to do electroporations (a fancy word for giving a pupa an electric shock to make holes in its cells). The electroporation itself isn't actually difficult, but the dissections very much are. This starts to get frustrating after you've accidentally killed three or four pupae in a row, but Ava, Anyi and Joe have been supporting with their kind words and also occasionally through sweet treats.

Alongside my work, I am also starting to think about what I want to focus on for my independent project whilst I'm here. There are so many interesting things going on in the lab, it's going to be hard to choose!

Outside of work, my time in Panama has so far been incredibly rich and exciting. I've spent my weekends doing all sorts of things, from dancing in Casco Viejo to surfing in San Carlos. Next weekend I plan to explore the Caribbean coast for the first time, where I will hopefully get to see some more new creatures. The Spanish is still very much a work in progress, but *think* I'm making progress in very, very, VERY small steps. And though I miss everyone back home very much, it helps that Gamboa is full of some of the kindest and most generous people I've ever met. So I think the next four months are going to be a lot of fun.