Human Slaves…in an insect nation!
One of my all time favorites – Bill Bailey’s Insect Nation:
Another version with orchestra…
Boonie Stomping
I was on Guam last week, and over the weekend I hooked up with a group called the Boonie Stompers. They go hiking every Saturday, and they visit some really cool locations off the beaten path (actually it is not very hard to get off the beaten path on Guam – wherever you are, the boonies are never far away, which is what makes it a great place for outdoor exploring). On this particular occasion, they hiked Agfayan Falls in the southeastern part of the island (You can read about this hike and all the others scheduled for November at their site HERE.)
First falls encountered on Agfayan River, Guam
Cane Spider (Heteropoda venatoria?)
Lynx spider (Oxyopes sp.?)
A second waterfall area on Agfayan River
Hiking up Agfaya River.
A third waterfall area on Agfaya River.
Leaving Agfayan River.
Unfortunately I didn’t have my own rental car on this trip, so I had a coworker drop me off at the Chamorro Village with hopes that I would be able to catch a ride with someone to the trailhead. It was a little embarrasing when, after everyone (approx. 30-35 folks) was assembled and the brief on the day’s hike had been completed, the leader asked if anyone could give me a ride, and no one volunteered. I guess it would be a little wierd to give a complete stranger a ride to a remote trailhead, so I don’t really blame anyone, but I felt a little awkward. The leader actually ended up giving me a ride in his vehicle, which ended up being great because he turned out to be the manager for the Cultural and Natural Resources on Andersen Air Force Base, so we had a lot to talk about. He was super nice and had an interesting perspective on the military on Guam since he is a long time resident and considers Guam his home.
The first part of the hike traversed some grassy hills and then slowly descended down to the Agfayan River. There were some falls at the first point where we encountered the river, but there were also a few more falls as we hiked upstream, so I wasn’t exactly sure which of them was the “Agfayan Falls.” At the first falls, we took a long break and everyone swam. Some folks were sliding down the falls into a small plunge pool, and it looked like a lot of fun.
I had my camera, so I was off looking for insects and spiders to photograph. This drew a few strange looks from the boonie stompers, but that was really the main reason I went on the hike - to look for insects. So while everyone else was frolicking, I was nerdily poking around the riparian zone with a big camera dangling around my neck. Unfortunately, becuase the camera and lens had been in my ice-cold hotel room for a few days prior, there was a lot of condensation inside the lens and camera body, and it was screwing up my pictures. In particular I was unable to get a good shot of a dragonfly (which I’m pretty sure was Diplacodes bipunctata) that was buzzing around. I got a couple of decent spider pics though. Now that I’m looking at the images, the cane spider’s right legs look slightly deformed – perhaps there was something not quite right with this spider.
Pagan: 14 July 2010
At the first hint of sunlight, sometime between 5:30 and 6:00 am, the flies reappeared. Mike and CNN left even earlier to begin their quest to get inside the volcano crater. I was really glad the CNN ended up coming with us to South Pagan and took my place on the journey to the lost world, I’m pretty sure there is no way I could have made that hike with Mike and been able to get back down to the pick up spot by 5:00 pm. The new plan now was for the rest of us hike back up to the upper plateau and cross the saddle to another cliff line where there was another megapode transect. Evidently there was also some decent forest there, and on some earlier snail surveys some of the biologist supposedly found some native snails in that area (you can find an account of the snail surveys in a blog called “Tropical Depression” by one of the snail biologists, or rather, malacologists, I should say).
We got a pretty early start also, around 7:30, so it was much cooler and the steep climb up to the plateau was not nearly as bad as the day before. We also took a better route up this time. I forgot to bring my GPS, and I was wishing I had it, but that’s another story. We all made it up to the plateau without too much difficulty. Unfortunately, to get to the transect we planned on sampling, we had cross a kind of valley that was choked out with overhead sword grass. It was nasty stuff – seemed more like saw grass than sword grass. Jess had told us the best way to get through that is to look for an animal trail and just follow it as best you can. I found what looked like a little trail, so I tried that and charged ahead through the grass. I only got a few feet in when I discovered that I had plowed into a paper wasp nest. I didn’t really see the nest itself, but one wasp was stinging me on the stomach near my belly button and I saw another 4 or 5 buzzing around my chest. I don’t recall screaming or anything, I just remember dropping my net and running, and falling, and then running a few more steps. I don’t think the other guys really knew what was going on until I explained what happened. Fortunately I was only stung once.
After that incident we were all a little apprehensive of plowing through the sword grass, so we decided to look for a better way across the basin. We ended up finding some high ground a little farther down that minimized our time in the sword grass and made it across to the base of the cliff. I believe this was transect 11. We collected on it for a few hours, and then headed back. At one point, around 10:00, Mike radioed that he and CNN had made it to the crater. We arrived back at camp at around noon, had lunch, took down the tents, and got all the gear to the pick-up site by about 2:00. Unfortunately, our boat wasn’t coming until around 5:00 so we had some time to kill. The flies were very, very bad around the campsite, so I think we were all kind of rushing to get everything ready. We were hoping to hang out in the water and wait for the boat, but it was like an oven down on the black rocks. Some good fortune finally came our way, however, because as we were waiting, a boat came up and dropped Scott off. Scott was looking for monitor lizards. They said they could take two of back to main camp and then another bigger boat would later, closer to 5:00, to pick up the rest, including Mike and CNN. It was obvious that Christa had to be one of the folks on the first boat since she seemed to be losing her mind to all the flies. Stephan and I kind of debated a little bit about which one of us should go with Christa. I ended up going, and I felt a little guilty, but Stephan had the radio and said he had to stay. The trip back was a little slower, but I was happy nonetheless to be getting back to the luxuries of Main Camp. Once we made it back, I soaked in the ocean for what seemed to be almost an hour. Relaxing in the ocean was the only thing that would bring some relief to my heat rash. Eventually everyone made it back to camp and we took the rest of day off. Mike had some really cool stories about the crater. He and CNN climbed down in there about 300 ft and then had to use a rope for the last 150 ft. It was filled with a variety of ferns, but the only bummer was that there were a few goats in there.
Pagan: 13 July 2010
At about 6:00am I went up and took down the malaise, pitfall, and pan traps from Transect 3 – I was back by about 7:45. At 9:00 we were scheduled, to leave on a boat for the south part of the island, which we had been told has the best native forest. There had been considerable discussion leading up to this excursion on the previous night. We debated exactly what we were going to do there. We were told that there was some native forest on the lower bench, but the best forest was on the upper plateau. However, climbing to the upper plateau was rumored not to be an easy task and entailed climbing a steep, almost vertical hill. Furthermore, Mike wanted to hike up to the middle volcano and descend down into the caldera where there was supposed to be native forest, which he named ‘The Lost World’, that no one had been able to get to yet on these surveys. Mike was very persistent about getting to the crater, so I volunteered to go with him into the volcano while Christa, Stephan, and Mike went to the upper plateau. The plan was to for each group to camp overnight, and then we would meet back on the next day near the boat landing. I was very worried about this and the others were also feeling apprehensive. Overall it just felt like it wasn’t planned out very well. The biggest concern for me was water and the heat. Last night, as we discussed the plan, we all seemed to be a little on edge. When the camp guys heard that I was going to hike the crater with Mike, they were very skeptical and didn’t think I would be able to make it. Needless to say I was worried and I packed as light as I could – the majority of the weight in my pack was water.
Still unsure of exactly what we were going to be doing, we packed up our gear, loaded into the boat, and began our journey to South Pagan. The ride down was beautiful – we saw a group of spinner dolphins and our Captain, Jess, stopped for a bit so we could check them out. Soon we were once again motoring down the coastline, and after about 20 minutes we arrived at the drop off point. There was no beach, so Jess had to pull up to a rocky outcropping where we all hopped off. Jess then tossed us our gear, wished us luck, and motored back up to North. It was a strange feeling seeing him leave and watching the boat slowly disappear, knowing that we were on our own until 5:00 pm the next day. On the way over we were able to size up the south volcano, and it was clear that we would need a much earlier start, and I would never survive the hike in the heat of the day. Getting all the camping gear to the upper plateau also looked like a very daunting task, so we decided that we would all set up camp together on the lower plateau. The new plan was to set up camp, then Mike, Justin, and I would hike to the good native on the upper plateau, and Stephan and Christa would set up the malaise trap down on the lower shelf. Then early in the morning Mike and I would hike the volcano while the rest of group sampled more of the forest on the upper plateau. Just around that time, another boat pulled up and dropped off our friend, CNN. He wanted to get some more video footage. He also wanted to go the lost world, so suddenly I was off the hook. It all seemed to work out very well. We scouted a good camp site and then set up our tents – unfortunately, the tent Mike and I set up didn’t have a fly, which meant it would probably rain that night.
Captain Jess
Spinner dolphins
At the boat landing
After a filling lunch of MREs, my spicy chicken with penne was the bomb!, Mike, Justin, CNN, and I hiked to the upper plateau. It was the hottest part of the day, right around noon, and the hike up that steep, rocky hillside just about killed me. I thought at any moment I was going to spontaneously combust. Of course, my heat rash was also flaring like crazy, that didn’t help. Once we made it to the top, we did a little sweeping in the sword grass – it was so hot and I was so drained, all I could manage was a few sweeps. I thing I got a Chinese rose beetle and a few other little things. Just before I succumbed to heat exhaustion, we thankfully entered the patch of native forest that was supposed to be the best on the island. Sure enough, it was a very nice area of native forest – no coconut or ironwood was mixed in. Unfortunately, yellow crazy ant was once again a ubiquitous component of the landscape, so there was still an apparent dearth of insect fauna. One bright spot for me was that I found some interesting termites. They were in a very wet portion of a fallen tree. We also saw a decent sized monitor lizard. After a few hours we began the descent back down to the camp site. Mike and CNN went down a different way, but Justin and I opted for the same route we used coming up. Going down was not nearly as bad as coming up, and it was much cooler.
Looking South from hill to upper plateau
Native forest on the upper plateau
When Justin and I made it back to camp, we went down the water to soak a little bit. Jess had told us of a little hot spring near the landing area so we thought we would check it out. There was indeed a small swimming hole in the rocks that was barely separated from the ocean by rocks such that fresh water would come in and out with waves over the rocks. I jumped in, and it was a little warmer than I anticipated. I tried to dive down and open my eyes, but the water stung and it seemed the temperature became more hot the deeper I went, so I quickly abandoned the notion of exploring the depths. I could see reef fish swimming around down below, so it couldn’t have been too hot. Although, I couldn’t see the bottom, so that freaked me out a little bit. There must be a thermal vent or something heating the water down below. Soon I started to get paranoid that there was some man-eating critter waiting to drag me into the blackness (I know, I’m an idiot), so I hopped out there. It wasn’t really that refreshing anyway. I was able to lay on the smooth rock where the water passed over, and that felt pretty good. A little later I found a pretty good spot in the rocks on the ocean side where I was almost half in the water and I could brace myself against the waves. That spot was heaven. I think I sat there for about 1/2 hour. The flies didn’t seem as bad down there either so that was another bonus. Did I mention that the flies seemed to be twice as bad in South Pagan compared to main camp? Unfortunately I couldn’t stay down there forever, so I went back up to our little camp site for dinner.
Hot spring
Our evening meal consisted of another round of MREs. This time I was treated to chicken cavatelli, and I was again very pleased with my choice. Mike was entertaining all of us by reading the information on the MRE boxes, I can’t remember why it was so funny but he had us all laughing. It was starting to get dark and we were a little surprised at the number of roaches (Periplaneta americana) that suddenly showed up. They descended in droves down from the ironwoods. That brings up another thing we noticed that was a little curious – we didn’t see a single centipede in the South. This was surprising since they were so plentiful back at Main Camp in the North. However, I did see quite a few of the big cane spiders in the South. The roaches appeared to be very hungry since they attacked all of crumbs and leftovers. Mike was particularly disgusted with his MRE mashed potatoes, so he put a dollop on a log to see if the roaches would eat – much to our surprise, even the roaches passed on the mashed potatoes. What then followed were a series of experiments to see what MRE foods the roaches would eat. I think Mike got some good macro shots of roaches engorging themselves on all kinds of foods – I recall that we all got a particular kick out a roach that had buried it head in some orange powder drink mush.
Descent of the roaches
Once we all tired of watching the roaches, we set up a couple of light traps to collect insects. We were going to take shifts and Mike and Stephan volunteered to go first. I went into the tent to lay down, which was a mistake because I crashed hard. I didn’t have a sleeping pad and I didn’t even take off my boots – I just laid face down on the floor of the tent and immediately fell asleep. The night was anything but peaceful, however. The first time I woke up, I was in the middle of the tent and Mike was huddled tightly against the far side – I felt a little guilty and moved back to my side. Then, as predicted it rained, so we both jumped out and managed to finagle a tarp over the tent to keep the rain out. Amazingly, even though the tent was wet inside, I still fell back asleep in no time at all. From that point on, my memories of the night are a little fuzzy…I remember once waking up with my face a few inches from Mike’s face, which was a little weird, and I remember waking up a couple of times and being completely disoriented and not knowing where I was for a few seconds, but that is about it.
Pagan: 12 July 2010
Filming the malaise trap.
Erythrina grove on transect #3.
Hiking to the Shire.
Looking north from the saddle.
Looking east from saddle.
Looking south from the saddle.
View of bomb pitted runway from atop Miari Cliff.
View of camp (my tent is slightly right of center) from atop Miari Cliff.
I was up at 0600 this morning. I set up the Hiker Biker II, a little one-man tent I picked up at Sports Authority before the trip, yesterday evening with the hope that it would get a little more ventilation than my current tent. With the fly removed, the Hiker Biker was basically just an all mesh tube, so it served me well. My plan was that if it rained during the night, I would just hop out and climb into the tent. Fortunately, it didn’t rain, and I finally was able to get a decent night’s rest. The only thing that worried me was being stepped on by a large ungulate. On previous nights it sounded like cattle and pigs were coming down into our camp site, so I was concerned that I might get stepped on accidentally. While it is definitely cooler, the Hiker Biker offers no protection from a misplaced hoof. Fortunately, I had no such encounters. I did a little sorting before breakfast, which consisted of hot dog bun french toast and jam. Continued to sort after breakfast and then prepared for the day’s hike.
Today we went back to the patches of native forest on transect #3 to do a little more collecting and set up the malaise trap, pitfall traps, and pan traps. We had an extra member on our crew. His name was Phil and he is a volunteer who is filming all of the surveys on Pagan and the other islands. The camp guys have nicknamed him “CNN.” He has been out here on various islands since the beginning of the surveys – almost a couple of months up to this point. We set up the traps in roughly the same area we had collected in the day before. A big centipede crawled out of the netting of the malaise trap as Justing was setting it up and gave him quite a fright – it turns out Justin has a mild phobia of centipedes, so he really jumped. Stephan and Mike were explaining the malaise trap on film with Phil while I was setting up the pitfall and pan traps. I guess the stuff I was doing wasn’t as interesting because I didn’t get any film time. After setting up the traps and doing a little more collecting, we continued up transect #3. Not far past our site there were some very impressive groves of erythrina. Eventually the transect took us up to the thin saddle separating the North and South portions of the island. It was a pretty neat area. As we ascended to the top of the saddle I felt like we were in one of the Lord of the Rings movies. Mike must have had the same feeling because he called this area “The Shire.” I think that was a pretty good name for it since it was basically a big savannah/grassland. The wind was very strong, and while we took a break I was kind of getting a Sound of Music/Alice in Wonderland vibe. During our break on the saddle, I collected a roach I hadn’t seen before and a few beetles that looked like tenebrionids. Mike felt like it would be cooler if on our return hike to camp we stayed on the top side of the cliff and then dropped down at the end. I was once again reluctant, but Stephan and Phil were OK with it, so I decided to go with them. Justin and Christa returned to camp the same way we came. It was much windier on top of the cliff, but it was also in direct sun the entire way so I think it ended up being much hotter. We stopped in a little grove of Acacia confusa and did some collecting. I found some interesting larvae packed away inside inside a dead limb – they almost looked like some kind of Hymenoptera. Mike collected some ants, but otherwise there wasn’t much of anything interesting. Mike and Phil hit it off since Phil was also into climbing, so they talked about climbing for almost the whole way back. At one point I felt like I was being stung by something, and then I noticed that it was heat rash. I was feeling slightly bothered that we were up in the sun in the hottest part of the day, and wished that I gone back with Christa and Justin.
Pagan: 11 July 2010
We had a late start today. Originally we were supposed to go back to the lake at 0730 to pick up our traps, but we were told that the ATVs had to be serviced, and that our trip to the lake was postponed until after lunch. It wasn’t really clear whether there was actually something wrong with the ATVs or whether they just decided to do a routine servicing of them that morning. Whatever the case, the ATVs were not available, so we decided to hike megapode transect #3. This transect begins at camp and heads south along the coast. It passes through mostly mixed forest, but there are some occassinal pockets of good native forest.
Looking south along coast from transect #3.
Native forest on transect #3.
Large Spider flushed out from under log.
We stopped in one of the better native forest patches and did some collecting. We all kind of fanned out and did some general collecting, however, Mike focused on ants and put out some cards with peanut butter on a variety of different tree species. Mosquitoes were out and biting at this site, so Stephan aspirated a few from our exposed limbs. I caught a few different insects, an interesting ichneumonid (at least that is what it appeared to be), and some tephritid fruit flies, but most of my time was spent hacking at fallen tree limbs looking for termites. I discovered a few logs with frass, but was never able to find any termites. Kicking over logs I uncovered quite a few large spiders that looked very similar to the big cane spiders that we have in Hawaii.
Christa, Justin, and I left a little early (at about 1300) because we wanted a little down time before heading back to the lake. Mike and Stephan stayed a little later (until 1400 or 1430) and continued collecting. Christa, Justin, and I ended up leaving for the lake at about 1530. The hike seemed much easier the second time - not sure if it was because we had already hiked the trail once and knew what to expect, or if it was because we had an easier morning than the day before (i.e. no death march under the noon day sun) - it was actually kind of pleasant, except for the flies, of course. Some of the pitfall traps close to the water had some of soil washed away around them, but otherwise all the traps were intact. We emptied all the traps, packed everything up, and made it back to camp at around 1800. While we were at the lake, Mike and Stephan collected on a little isthmus near camp called the Bandeera Peninsula. Stephan caught a few more mosquito larvae from some of the rock pools in that area, and some of them looked like anopholes. Mike commented that there seemed to a greater diversity of insects in that area compared to the other spots we had collected in. We did very little sorting that night, but we did have a meeting to discuss our plan of action for the next week.
Pagan: 10 July 2010
Did some sorting in the morning, and then hiked one of the megapode transects (transect 1) that skirted the base of what the map called the “Miari Cliff.” We began on the airfield and headed Southeast toward the lavaflow. While traversing the airfield we stopped to get the obligatory photo of the old Japanese zero surrounded by bomb craters. Along the way we also collected whatever insects we happened upon. There appeared to be a couple of grasshopper species that were very common. There was one species of plant that was doing noticeably well in the grassy field – Curt had told us about this plant earlier – evidently it is an ornamental plant that was introduced to the island at some point, and it is unpalatable to the cows and goats. There didn’t seem to be any insects on it either. Since we got a late start, it was extremely hot out in the open sun. There were a few concrete bunkers in the old airfield as well, and Mike poked around in a few of them. I don’t think he found much, but he did say it was quite cool inside. At another point we stopped and collected inside one of the larger bomb craters that had a clump of trees growing in it. I got a couple of species of ants and a few other things that were not very interesting – not sure what the other guys managed to catch.
Old airfield with Miari Cliff in background.
Lava Flow at end of airfield.Looking back to the West on transect #1.
End of transect #1.
We finally made it to the base of the cliff where there was thin strand of partly native forest. I believe on our labels we called this “mixed forest” since there was both native and non-native vegetation. There were a lot of butterflies along trail in this area – Papilio polytes, Hypolimnas bolina, Euploea eunice, and Melanitis leda. There was aslo a large skipper in the forest that was flitting about – I think we managed to get at least one of these guys. I got a few lacewings in this area also. We stopped at various locations along this trail and collected until finally we reached the end of the cliff. Once the cliff flattened out, we could see the east side of the island, it was pretty cool. We stopped here for rest and had a snack while enjoying the view. There was an even better looking patch of native forest heading due east from this point, I believe this was Megapode transect #2, however at this point it was getting later in the afternoon so we had to head back to camp (we had scheduled a trip up to the freshwater lake at about 3:00).
We had a very short respite and just a little time to get our stuff together before we had to leave for the freshwater lake. The freshwater lake was quite a bit further than the saltwater lake, so we were taken up there on ATVs. Mike was on the back of a red ATV driven by Jess, and Stephan, Christa, Justin and I were all on a larger ATV (one person in the passenger seat and three sitting on a cooler in the back). It felt great to have a ride and give our legs a rest after our death march earlier that morning. We were dropped off at the head of the lake trail and had only a couple of hours before we had to be picked up. The freshwater lake is kind of in a large crater-like area, so we had to hike up and then down into a bowl shaped basin where the lake was. There was a lot wind coming off the lake once we hiked up to the rim of the bowl and it felt awesome. Once we got down there we really just had time to set up our traps and do only a little collecting before we had to turn around and get back to the trail head for our pick-up. The lake was really cool – there seemed to be a lot insects near the shore. There at least one species of damselfly, one species of dragonfly, and a lot of other flying insects. I was mostly working on getting all the traps set up, but Mike and Stephan managed to also find some subterranean termites in a fallen log. The hike out of the bowl was not very fun to say the least, but we made it out and got back to our pick-up site a little early. When the guys on the ATVs showed up, they had brought some beverages with them in a cooler, and they wanted to hang out a bit and do some drinking before driving back to camp. This took us by surprise – we were all just anxious to get back to camp and have some dinner and call it a day. Nevertheless, we hung out with the guys for a bit and drank with them. They brought one Coke, so I shared it with Christa and Stephan. All of the rest was beer, or, as they called it on Pagan, “painkillers.” I think they were a little disappointed that 3 out of 5 us didn’t drink and that there were extra beers, but what can you do? After a little chit-chat and painkilling, we loaded up the ATVs and headed back to camp.
Jess and Mike lead the way.
Mike looking slightly uncomfortable.
Heading back to camp during sunset.
Freshwater Lake (Lake Sanhalom).
Malaise trap on freshwater lake.
The ride back was beautiful, particularly when we drove across the black sand beach by the saltwater lake as the sun was going down. The only bad thing was that the ATVs didn’t go fast enough to outrun the flies so there was constantly a little cloud of flies around us. When we arrived at camp, our driver dropped us off at the ento tent, but Mike was not so fortunate. Jess took Mike on wild ride to chase cattle off of the runway. They were speeding around after cows with an air horn blaring for what seemed like 20 minutes. When Mike returned he looked exhausted. I did not envy him. That night we did a little more sorting, and we had planned to run the blacklight in camp again, but our battery was not properly charged so we just went to bed.
Pagan: 9 July 2010
After about a 2 hour wait on the boat, we were finally shuttled onto the island by small boats. The guys driving the boats told us the first order of business once we were all on the island was get the big safety brief. The boats took us right up to shore, but we still had to hop out into ankle deep water on the beach. Anticipating this, I had my old boots on, but I would have loved to have had some of those Keen water shoes! (Unfortunatley I was not able to find any in my size in Honolulu before I left).
Boat landing and lower camp area.
Stephan and I were actually in one of the first boats to go ashore, so once we landed we headed up to the main camp, squishing all the way in my wet boots, where we met the camp manager, Tom. He didn’t introduce himself as the camp manager though, so originally I thought he was a member of one of the science crews that was already on the island. Upon meeting him, he said that he remembered meeting me once before, but I had no such recollection. (For whatever reason, this happens to me a lot – I must have a generic face.) He was an older guy, maybe in his late 60′s or early 70′s? I couldn’t really tell, but he was well dressed, sporting a long sleeve safari shirt tucked into matching cargo shorts. He told us to go ahead and eat some breakfast (by this time it was about 8:00 AM) and pick out our tents. Not realizing he was the camp manager, I stupidly said something about how we were supposed to get the safety brief first. To that he just kind of shrugged and said we might as well eat then so there wouldn’t be a bottleneck at the chow table once everyone got up there and that we should make sure to pick the good tents before they were all spoken for. It was then that I sensed he was not a clueless biologist, but rather someone who actually knew what he was talking about (I guess I’m a little slow). So Stephan and I ate breakfast (Spam and rice) and then walked back down to check out the tent situation. We had been told that a helicopter would be arriving later to lift all the gear off the boat, so we weren’t particularly worried about unloading the stuff, but when we walked back down we saw people hefting the gear from the boats. I saw some of the marine biologists hoisting my bags up the black sand beach, and I felt like a clod. Stephan and I had been eating while the other guys were busy unloading all the stuff. We quickly jumped into the fray to help out and began passing stuff up the beach. The marine biologists had about dozen air tanks that had to carried up, so I was able to atone for my idleness and then some (those tanks were heavy). Once most of the gear was ashore, there was a bit of a scramble for tents. I chose one that looked like it was in a good location, not under any coconut trees and in a pretty flat area. Later I would discover that it was never really under any shade during any part of the day and was very hot, but my choice had been made. Around that time the helicopter arrived in dramatic fashion – it swooped suddenly around some cliffs over the bay and startled us all. A little later it began slingloading the bigger supplies off the boat.
Helicopter in action with volcano spewing smoke in background.
At some point in the morning we finally got the big safety brief which really turned out to be very short. We were told that one of the crew had been bit by a shark while working on the small boats in about 4 feet of water so we should be extremely careful in the water. We were also warned about the various ungulates that roamed the island – evidently one of previous scientists accidentally cornered a wild pig in a cave or bunker or something, and it charged him. Of course, there was also some discussion about the volcano and what to do if it started showing increased activity. I have to admit it was a little ominous during our brief to see it in the background with a constant plume of white smoke. After lunch we set up our work area under a tent in the main camp and picked the brains of the plant, bat, small mammal, and herp crews that were leaving that night on the boat. They told us about the transects that they had been using, where the good forest was, what to watch out for, etc. We also set up the malaise trap and some pitfall traps near our work area.
Malaise trap outside Ento tent.
Brackish lake.
Later in the afternoon we walked down to the brackish lake to see what we could collect. We brought the aquatic net along with our regular collecting gear in hopes of getting something in the lake. Unfortunately I forgot to bring a pan to dump the net into, so sampling the lake was difficult. There didn’t appear to be much in there but tilapia anyway. Justin did catch an adult chironomid near the shore, so maybe there was something in there after all. It was starting to get a little late, so we began to head back.
Brackish lake.
Ocean side near brackish lake, looking south towards camp.
Stephan suggested we sample some of the freshwater rock pools along the shore on the way back, so Mike suggested we divide up – someone should go with Stephan along the coast and the rest would head back on the trail we came in on. The coast seemed a little rugged to me, maybe even impassable in some spots, so I didn’t think this was a great idea. I said I would go back the way we came, and Christa and Justin didn’t volunteer either, so Mike ended up going back with Stephan along the coast. We stopped on the way back and did some collecting in the ironwood understory (mostly sword ferns). The spot we collected in looked like some kind of small rift. We didn’t find anything notable.
Ironwood forest with sword fern understory.
We ended up getting back before Stephan and Mike, so I had a chance to get in the water before dinner. Of course, I only got in up to my ankles for fear of sharks, but it felt great. I managed to wallow as best I could in 2 feet of water – I must have looked like an elephant seal. Dinner ended up being some kind Spam stew – it was really quite tastey. Mike and Stephan apparently found some cool pools in the rocks and were able to get some mosquito larvae. I suppose I should have more trust in Mike and maybe not always opt for the safer option. I had been dealing with a minor headache all evening, probably left over from the hellish boat experience or maybe the result of Bonine overdose, but I was looking forward to bed. Unfortunately, I slept very little that night because it was incredibly hot and sticky. There was absolutely no breeze in my tent. I think my tent was oriented in the wrong direction to get the ocean breeze. Whatever the case, the night was torturous for me.
Pagan: 8 July 2010
We were told to be at the marina and ready to board the boat at 4:00 PM. Figuring out the logistics of running last minute errands, geting our stuff together, checking out of the the Hyatt, returning the rental cars, and then getting transportation back to the marina proved very daunting, but somehow it all worked out. At one point we were a little worried because Mike had split off with Justin to continue his quest for the perfect empanada (I think he is working on some kind of catalogue of empanadas of the Mariana Islands), and it was getting near 4:00 and there was still no sign of them at Budget Rent-a-car. In usual fashion, he rolled up just in time, and all was well with even a few minutes to spare.
I wasn’t exactly sure what I envisioned our boat to Pagan would look like, but it is pretty safe to say that the Micronesian was not really close in appearance to any of the vessels that my mind had conjured up. It did seem plenty large for the 12 hour journey, however, and that was all I was really concerned about.
The Micronesian.
After a couple hours of preparation, we were finally off. There were families of the crew and other folks with FWS waving goodbye and cheering us on our voyage, so there was a feeling of excitement in the air as we slowly pulled out of the harbor. I don’t really know my boat terms very well, so please bear with the following description of the Micronesian’s accomodations: There was an upper cabin area on deck with 3 or 4 rows of large seats, some tables, a TV, and a toilet, or head, as they say. Down below there was a galley, a few rooms with some bunks, and sort of a cargo hold. I didn’t venture into any other areas, so I can’t describe any more of the boat. Passengers basically included the Science crew, which consisted of our bug team (5) and a marine biology team (5). The rest of the folks were either part of the boat’s crew or part of the camp crew on one of the islands.
Mike, Justin, and Stephan in the main cabin.
I was very concerned about getting sick, even though I had taken one Bonine pill in the morning, and another just after boarding the boat. I was doing fine, until we had to move a bunch of gear from the deck cabin down below to the cargo area. I was part of the chain down below, receiving luggage as it was passed from person to person down the stairs and through the narrow passage. By this time the boat was well under way and we had hit open ocean so the vessel was heaving to and fro. I started sweating profusely and began feeling a little uneasy. I didn’t get nauseated, but I was feeling very disoriented and my head ached. Standing outside on deck, with the cool air and ocean spray hitting me in the face, I was able to slightly recover. Soon it got dark however, so I retreated inside to try and find a seat.
One of the guys that seemed to sort of be in charge, or who at least been on the boat before and had some idea what was going on, told us that for DVDs we had the choice of either war movies or porn. The latter option seemed like a weird choice to offer since out of the 10 science crew, 4 were women. There was kind of an awkward pause, and then somebody suggested we go with the war DVDs. Band of Brothers ended up being the final choice. I am actually a big fan of the Band of Brothers series – I read the book and had seen all the episodes before, but watching people have their limbs blown off and listening to exploding bombs and constant machine gun fire doesn’t exactly put you at ease when you are trying ward off seasickness. I was kind of in an out, trying not to get too sick. I found that laying outside on deck was where I felt the best. There was a pile of ropes to one side that made a comfortable enough little spot for me to lay, and there was a nearby cargo strap to which I could cling and prevent myself from being tossed overboard during the big bumps over the waves. There was a lot of ocean spray at that spot, but if felt good. The Bonine was kicking in, so I actually dozed off in my little nest of ropes for a short time before someone woke me asking if I was OK. I assured them that I was. A while later another guy came out and told me that I was in a bad spot and that I had to go inside. I tried sleeping in some of the chairs, but it was no good. Many of the folks had already spread out so there was no place to lay down, and Band of Brothers was still going, even though there was no one watching. Actually, it was stuck on the menu screen, so the theme was playing over and over. Either no one knew how to turn it off, or no one wanted to get up, so the music just kept droning on as the dimly lit cabin slammed back and forth with the boat as it pushed ahead through the ocean swells.
I actually took another Bonine for fear that I was getting sick again. That made three Bonine pills in a period of about 12 hours. Not sure what the limit is, but I am pretty sure you aren’t supposed to take that many in such a short period. Needless to say, I was super tired, so I finally wandered downstairs. I thought it would be terrible down there, but actually it seemed a little more stable. I found a bunk and immediately crashed. Next thing I knew I was waking up and the boat was no longer moving – I had slept for about 8 or 9 hours straight, but more importantly, we had arrived at Pagan.
Looking at the south end of Pagan from aboard the Micronesian.
Subterranean Termite Colony – 100 Feet Underground!
It’s true.
I was invited to check out some mud tubes inside a tunnel system that went into the side of a mountain. As I was looking at the mud tubes, I had this weird feeling, kind of an existential epiphany, that I was also a termite in an earthen tube - it was a little freaky.
Unfortunately I couldn’t take any pictures of the actual tunnel we were in, but I was able to get some pics of the termite tubes:
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- Looking down the stairs from the location of the mud tubes.
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- A spot in the ceiling with some blind vertical tubes dropping down.
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- Mud tubes on the wall.
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- Large mud tube in the corner (with pen for scale).
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- Mud tubs following the contour of the chamber.
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- Randy treats the mud tube.
Anyway, I wonder what the record is for the depth that a termite colony has been found underground? The spot where the mud tubes were located was indeed about 1oo ft below the surface of the ridge, but it was unclear exactly how the termites got there. A pair of alates could have easily entered the tunnels, just as we did, from the side of the ridge, and founded the colony. However, the colony was located all the way up at the end of one of the side tunnels, so it seems a little weird that they would have chosen that spot as opposed to other locations closer to the entrance. Another possibility is that that the termites are colonizing the space between rock and the cement that lines the tunnels. It is possible that back in the day the builders used wood forms before applying the concrete, and those forms have provided food for the termites. Perhaps the termites are using the concrete tunnel lining as a giant guide, and where we see the mud tubes is just one small area where the termites have been able to penetrate into the inside of the tunnel. I guess there is also the possibility they came down, through the ground, from the top of the ridge, but in the absence of some kind of guide like a ventilation pipe, I doubt they would tunnel down that deep. I don’t think there are any penetrations to the surface from that spot.
Whatever the case, it was a cool experience.
Entophile Shop
