Cristalino Day 5 – The Serra and Lots of Moths

August 8, 2015

This morning we did the steep climb up to the overlook on the Serra, a dome of granite rock that rises above the rainforest. We were lucky to be there when a small fig was in fruit right next to the overlook – several tanagers including Opal-rumped and Bay-headed gave us extended views. The view of the forest below is also stunnning, and we had a hard time tearing ourselves away from it.

The local guides discovered this Common Potoo along the trail, apparently on a nest, as it has been here for several days.

We finally departed for the cooler rainforest trails when we began to see the first soaring raptors, such as this Hook-billed Kite.

Before we got back on the boats to return to the lodge, I decided to try to show my group what a larval antlion looks like. Everyone knows the little sand pit traps they make, but few have actually seen the creature. You have to scoop up all the sand and let it sift between your fingers while looking for the one thing that isn’t a grain of sand.

Right over the common area of the lodge right after lunch was this brilliant King Vulture.

And shortly thereafter by the guides’ dorm was this juvenile Gray-lined Hawk.

My daily check of the wet sand by the boats was productive.

Emesis mandana, a metalmark.

Marpesia orsilochus, one of the commoner daggerwings here

Historis odius, Orion Cecropion. The caterpillars of this butterfly feed on cecropia leaves.

This tiny wasp was guarding her small paper nest built atop a leaf on a small tree (a Moluccan Roseapple) by the dorm. She kept turning to face the camera, ready to sting at a moment’s notice, so I had to take a lot of photos and maneuver slowly to get this profile. Only after I took the photo did I realize that eggs and pupae were visible in open cells.

We took an afternoon boat ride down the Cristalino River to the Manakin Trail, here the group gathering in the shade before loading into the boat.

And right below them was a pair of foraging Capybaras.

Bird highlights on the short Manakin Trail were Bronzy Jacamar and Amazonian Streaked-Antwren, and we then boarded our boat for our last return to the lodge.

This evening after dinner, there were only a few insects on the moth sheet a short ways down the trail, lit by a weak fluorescent bulb.

A grasshopper in the genus Copiocera.

A skipper, Dubiella sp.

And several geometrid moths (inch worms). This is probably a Chloropteryx sp.

This geometer may be Iridopsis or a closely related genus.

And two whose genera I have no idea:

But the most diversity was at the lights along the boardwalk and steps down to the floating deck.

What looks exactly like a dead leaf is actually a praying mantis.

Colla sp., a Bombycid silk moth

Sosxetra grata, Walker’s Moth, an erebid

Perigramma famulata, a geometrid

Cresera sp., an arctiine erebid

Possibly an Hapigia sp., a prominent (family Notodontidae)

Possibly a noctuid

Yet another pyraloid (see my blog from two days ago)

A tiny artciine

My guess is family Lasiocampidae on this one.

This one has the shape of many geometers but is quite possibly in the family Erebidae.

And many more typical geometers. The latter two are also probably Iridopsis, the first one a more clearly marked individual of the same species on the sheet above.