We arrived at the station in the late afternoon, and the staff explained that across the main road was a trail that followed a small river.  We would have to wait until night before the frogs would start calling.  In the meantime, they explained, we could look at their caterpillars.

The Station had been collecting data on caterpillars in the region.  They were hoping to find specimens that had been invaded by parasitoids.  The idea was to collect hundreds of cocoons and wait for the possibility of a parasite wasp to come crawling out.

Many of the cocoons had been hatching as regular caterpillars, and one of the researchers offered to pull them out of their research bags and let us watch them crawl around.  Each caterpillar was even more incredible than the next: intricate spines, horns, patterns of unlikely color.

Seeing these caterpillars in nature is so rare, that I found it hard to believe they had all been collected within a few miles of this facility. 

That fact, which confounds me every time, is an important one to remember for the jungle.  New visitors are notoriously disappointed to find out that the jungle is just green, and not nearly as filled with life as they were hoping.  In fact, that green jungle is filled to the brim with crazy life, but if you’re not looking for something, and didn’t try to find it, you can’t expect to see much of anything.