Ok. So a mouthful of insects is the new dental jewelry. Alright. Good thing I've never really been a trend seeker.
I was superbly impressed by how many insects there were in that leaf litter. When Harry and I put the bamboo sample into a plastic bag we said, "Oh there's nothing in here." Yeah right! Critters galore! WHY must termites be so prevalent in PR??? The worst part was when we were all done counting the termites and Harry, clumsy as usual (not a value judgment, it's a fact, I promise), accidentally lifts the newspaper and mixes the termites with the many others there. Oooooh, that took alot of effort to stay quiet; I just left for a moment to get some air hahaha woooow.
I definitely learned alot with the exercise though.
1. Don't underestimate insects, little as they are. They dominate the earth! They will invade your homes, and your mouths, and the very ground you walk on. Beware! (...ok I'm done)
2. Thanks Patrick: Standard Sampling Protocol. How bout it eh? Would have been much easier if we had agreed on the manner to describe certain insect traits. Perhaps color according to a color chart, wing presence, size, and shape according to geometric shapes. We had different names for the same insect which made it difficult to compare samples, since what they called A we called B.
3. Pseudoreplicates: are cool. Sometimes necessary, sometimes more detrimental than helpful. I wonder also about the length of some projects. Climate in PR, for example, changes drastically with location on the island and with time. A short-term project only in the Luquillo Mtns. that looks for the overall rainfall of El Yunque would be inherently flawed, since certain elevations will have less/more rainfall, and that can change between months.
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