A week's worth of data

9 ii 2012
0632- sleeping
1002- getting my motorcycle loaded
1521- driving
2000- driving
Random Fact- when tying down a bike, you want the front shocks compressed about 1/3 the way down- enough when it bounces there isn't slack, but not so much you screw your bike up.
 
Lunch/dinner- tortillas and bluebell 

Markus and I met up shortly before 10 and got my bike loaded and strapped down.  Checked my email and found out I needed to be back by 1125, not 1500... I ran a couple of errands and headed north.  I left a bit before noon, and by the time I got to Tyler found out Mikey was leaving Austin today also.  The weather was great, no rain and some sun.  About 1900 I got a text from Mikey saying he missed his plane so we coordinated to meet up in St. Louis about 0100 Friday.

10 ii 2012
0847- sleeping
1233- at Bird Lab
1410- waiting for Drew to get done talking to the admissions committee
1724- at the PEEC mixer
Random Fact- Carotenoids cannot be synthesized by animals, so are thought to be an honest marker where as animals can produce melanin so its possible for them to "cheat" and be more attractive then they really are.

Lunch- pizza  at Bird Lab
Dinner- shiner and random finger foods at the mixer  then nachos at Murphys

Today was incredibly long- I picked Mikey up, and then we took turns driving the rest of the way to Urbana, finally getting in a bit after 0500.  Unloaded and got a few hours of sleep before I had to walk a prospective student between meetings on campus.  The afternoon got complicated as recruit schedules kept changing but the recruit I was helping with was pretty cool so it worked out ok.  The highlight of the recruiting things today though was the free Shiner at the mixer (I wasn't excited about mixing so only talked to people I knew).  I also found out Chris took my data comment to heart- while we were talking about my DDIG he made a comment about the fact I'm only interested in the data.

11 ii 2012
0505- sleeping
0747- sleeping
1904- home playing WoW
2220- playing WoW
 
Random Fact- Male three spined sticklebacks provide all parental care including fanning the eggs to provide fresh oxygenated water and guarding the eggs and young.

Lunch- McDonalds 
Dinner- pizza (sausage, peperoni, extra cheese, and tomatoes) and beer (ordered an Anchor Steam, but mikey didn’t like his beer so we traded casue I'm nice like that) at Jupiter's  

As part of the recruiting weekend there is a research symposium where grad students present their work and then a mixer afterwards.  As usual, I didn't present anything so enjoyed sleeping until almost 11 at which time I figured I should attend.  Caught a couple presentations then met up with Mikey and Massimo for lunch after giving up waiting for the recruiting people to get their act together.  After lunch I sat through another 3 hrs of presentations, then to the mixer/poster session.  I was way over my limit on crowds, talking to people, and socialization in general so when KJ told me I looked bored I took that as a sign it was time to go home.

12 ii 2012
0433- sleeping
0743- sleeping
1917- Skyping with Eddie trying to fix my Nexus conversion program
2138- playing WoW

Random Fact- Unix and dos use different protocols for dealing with the ends of lines.  My brother and I spent 3 hours trying to make something work before realizing that was the problem...

Lunch- eggs at IHOP 
Dinner- fish sticks  

I had big plans of PCRing today, but instead spent a big part of the day skying with Eddie trying to get a program he wrote for me to work.  Taxonomy programs all want slightly different files, so he made me something to convert files from the alignment program I use to the nexus files.  It worked fine for him, but wasn't working for me.  After 3+ hours he realized it was the conversion issue mentioned above so that problem was solved.  Now I get to actually do the data analysis on the sequences I got last week.

13 ii 2012
0043- playing online
0720- sleeping
1641- reading the paper for biogeography discussion
2318- home playing WoW
Random Fact- Excluding captive bred animals, 2008 was the first time in over 200 years a Tuatara successfully bred on mainland New Zealand.
 
Lunch- corned beef 
Dinner- lingcod and rice  

Ran a bunch of PCRs today, and did some purification.  Assuming everything goes well I can submit my plate tomorrow- mostly 28s, but some 12s and Histone too. I added a bunch of outgroups from Jamie's extractions, so hopefully this will help with the kinda weird trees I've been getting.  I also sent Chris a new copy of my DDIG- not sure if it was better or worse than the old one but it was different (he said it was better).  The highlight though was free hot chocolate- my reward for keeping the recruit from getting too lost on Friday.

14 ii 2012
0555- sleeping
1027- purifying sequencing reactions
1411- tea time
2211- talking online

Random fact- In some species female parrotfish can become male if the male leading the harem dies.

Lunch- lingcod and rice 
Dinner- Mas Amigas  

Submitting a plate is never easy, pipetting 96 reactions is enough to fry anyone's brain.  Couple that with having to purify a bunch of reactions before you even start and it's no surprise I had a bruised hand by the time I was done.  It took so long we even had to push lab meeting back an hour so I could get the SEQ reaction started by 1400 (the cut off for submission to the Keck Center since they close at 1700).  Looks like I'll be getting a new office- I'm not sure where yet but there is going to be a bunch of shifting around in the NRB and our office is way to crowded with 3 people.  Hopefully I'll get the one on the 3rd floor, its got sloped ceiling and a nice view...

15 ii 2012
1024- sleeping
1559- PEEC seminar on grass vs corn decomposition
1714- back at the lab clearing specimens
2102- at home reading a paper

Tundra peregrines often won't molt primaries 8-10 until sometime in January, when they are on the wintering grounds. 

Lunch- salami 
Dinner- salami and honey nut Cheerios  

At my biogeography discussion group I think I traumatized some first year grad students by telling them primers don't always work even, in fact, even when they work for closely related things they still may not work.  Oh to be young and full of hope for easy sequencing...  I also got the comments fixed on my DDIG and sent it back, so hopefully this round will be the last (excluding the preliminary results since I'm waiting for the sequences from yesterday's plate still).  I tried convincing Chris to send me to Australia but then he started finding the leafhoppers I needed so there went that plan.  He claims I need to work in the lab sometime, life can't only be field work, although I disagree.  Speaking of field work apparently I didn't tell KJ I was going to the Philippines, so now he's jealous- its 4th on his list (they have endemic families of birds), yeah the life of a grad student is amazing.

16 ii 2012
0257- playing World of Warcraft
1726- getting extractions set up
2016- eatting dinner
2359- working on the alignments

Random Fact-  AIC favors overparameterization of models.

Lunch- salami 
Dinner- cheesy cheddar steak burger  
I almost had a heart attack today since the first group of sequences I looked at were not the right lengths for the genes they should have been.  After BLASTing to discover they were in fact leafhoppers I figured out they were the sequences from my old plate and redownloaded the data (correct this time).  Overall they look fine, although the alignments are a bit strange on the Caliscelidae.  Systematics Discussion group was pretty good (once we got in the room, no climbing through the ceiling required), with plenty of laughter and random arguments about models (that's not a model, that's reality).  I also started some extractions of 10 leafhoppers from Australia- the last of the continents I needed represented. 

Good to be back home

1.ii.2012
0149- on the internet
0952- getting ready to go into work
1446- tea time
1742- packing up the truck

Random Fact- the size of hybrid zones in birds varies widely- in the tropics some zones are only a mile or so wide while in the central US zone can be hundreds of miles wide.

Lunch- Cheesy Cheddar steak burger
Dinner- lots of salami

The best part of today was (as it always is) getting sequences back.  Even awesomer was the fact only 5 of the 86 reactions I did failed (less awesome was getting a parking ticket while waiting for sequencer to open the files).  I also had my Skype discussion today, which went well except for that when I asked a question my computer crashed and by the time I got it up and running again they had moved on to a different topic.  Luckily I had tea with Kevin right after so I got to ask him about avian hybrid zones.  Loading up the truck took forever- it seemed like my stuff was scattered more than usual but I eventually got on the road about 1930.  Since I don't have a real phone charger the drive was kinda lame- I couldn't talk on the phone or listen to an audio book, but I made it work.

2.ii.2012
0451- sleeping
0937- getting ready to head off again
1323- driving
1940- hanging out with Brad

Random Fact- Traveling to Hong Kong does not have the same visa requirements as China itself- as long as you stay on the island you can just pick up a tourist visa when you arrive.

Lunch- the rest of the salami
Dinner- Plate at Layne's

After sleeping at a truckstop in Little Rock I drove the rest of the way to CS arriving about 1630 after 100+ miles of rain.  It was amazing seeing some green grass and the lake levels starting to come up after the awful drought we've had the past year.  Brad and I got dinner at Layne's, and went to Best Buy so I could get a phone charger.  I almost lost the charger though because I dropped part of it in the store, luckily I checked before we drove off and I was able to relocate it.  Today's excitement though was finally getting my Philippines tickets purchased.  Now we just have to come up with the itinerary so I know what gear to bring.

3.ii.2010
0601- sleeping
0721- getting ready to head in to the lab
1131- at work
1944- at Sodalaks with Eric

Random Fact- The Schmidt Sting Pain Index rates the relative pain/sensations caused by hymenopteran stings.  The descriptions are rather amusing...

Lunch- Lamb Kebabs
Dinner- steak and potato salad at Sodalaks

We had an amazing thunderstorm this evening, it featured tornado warnings, hail, strong winds, and a couple inches of rain.  Eric and I met up for dinner at the new Sodalaks (the one in the hole, as everyone apparently identifies it) and when the hail started a waitress opened a door to see if it was hail or not (it was).  Only problem was the door got stuck open, she got soaked and ran away, and by the time they got the door closed again there was a pretty nice flood going on.  At this point they closed the restaurant (but we had already placed our orders) and the entertainment portion of the night started- 6 waitresses trying to push all the water back out the door.  Ironically the 12 year old helper had the right idea of using 1 squeegee perpendicular to the door while the others parallel, but the older waitresses didn't like the idea and went back to pushing 3/4 of the water into the walls with every swipe. 

4.ii.2012
0423- sleeping
0939- still sleeping
1052- starting to wake up
1706- playing WoW

Random fact- Midland, TX has gotten more snow than Chicago, IL this year.

Lunch/Dinner- chili and bread

Took the birds out about noon, but both of them were being kinda pissy, they're still a bit heavy from the trip, so nothing too exciting today in that regard.  After dropping them off back home I went over to Jim Cathey's so we could try and figure out why Betsy's hazard lights don't work.  We ruled out all the easy things, so now it's going to be a major challenge, unless I get really, really lucky and it turns out to be a missing relay (which doesn't appear to be located where the diagrams say it is).  I spent the rest of the day playing WoW and working on my sequences.  I got everything aligned, even the 12s wasn't too difficult to fit into place.  

Frozen northland

0729- sleeping
1047- on our way to Mass
1426- showing Eddie how to check/fill the coolent in Bertha
2228- driving, about an hour from urbana

Random fact- The Coca-Cola company (at the time Pemberton Medicine Company) was first incorporated in Atlanta, Georgia 15 Jan 1889

Lunch-eggs, baccon, and sausage
Dinner-pizza Brendan made for me

Today was yet another marathon drive, this time to the frozen northland.  Eddie and I delayed leaving as long as we could (I guess in hopes a disaster would wipe out that part of the continent) but no luck.  I left shortly after 1600 and arrived about 7 hours later after an uneventful drive.  I had to get diesel in just before crossing the border into Illinois, it was 3.71 for diesel, oddly enough, that was much more expensive then in Illinois, never seen that before.  On the drive I talked to Ms. Aubrey Colvin (we're planning a collecting trip this spring), my grandpa George (he was still reading today's paper), and John (tales of work and taking a day to build a door for one cabinet). 

Fulfilled a childhood dream

0659- on the road to the CDC, a place I've dreamed of going since I was a kid
1041- Meeting with Andres to discuss a rabies phylogeography project
1947- back in Alabama eating tacos (it's snowing here...)
2020- watching TV and eating a banana split

Random fact- Ondine's Curse is a syndrome that causes respiratory arrests during sleep.  While usually identified shortly after birth (and fatal if untreated) it can be caused by traumatic brain or spinal injuries.  It got it's name from a myth in which one character is cursed (if you fall asleep you forget to breath) by the other.

Lunch- crunchy tacos at Chiplote
Dinner- tacos my madre made

Back when I was in middle school I got a book called Mad Dogs at Half Price Books starting a fascination with rabies (and other infectious diseases).  A couple years ago I took a spatial epidemiology class which required a class project for which I got some Texas fox rabies sequence data, do a BEAST analysis, then map the results.  In the process I made contact with a rabies researcher at the Centers for Disease Control and after exchanging e-mails and phone calls for the last couple of years we arranged to meet today and discuss a project we could collaborate on.  I won't go into details yet but its a really neat phylogeographic study that will require knowledge of wildlife ecology the findings of which will have management implications. I can't wait to get my paperwork processed and get moving on it.  

The falcons return

0300- sleeping
0647- sleeping
1447- at Bobs picking up the falcons
1852- driving back from getting the falcons

Random Fact- Today in 1901 the first Spindletop (the first big gusher in Texas) was discovered near Beaumont.

Lunch- McDonald's 10 piece chicken nugget
Dinner- grilled cheese sandwich, potato salad, and grapefruit

Today I finally got my falcons back [HRE].  What was suppose to be a quick two week separation while I was in New Zealand became a month long due to my truck issues.  Luckily Bob brought them down to weight for me over the last few days so I'm pretty much ready to get going again.  Since my mom came with me and drove there and back I was able to work for most of the way on my analyses.  I tried all kinds of variations in gene combinations and taxon sampling, but I'm still coming up with 4 clades (PARA, DELT, HEC, and  small clade including 2 each of PARA and DELT), need to look at the raw sequence data again...

On the road again

3 i 2012

0130- talking on skype
0324- sleeping
1539- driving from Santa Fe to Amarillo
1726- Driving from Amarillo to Allen

Lunch/dinner- sonic burger with tomatos, pickles, and mustard on toast

Random fact- In 1981 there were 731 robbereies in Central Park, in 2011 only 17.

Drove from Santa Fe to College Station today with a detour through Allen to drop off Eddie at Zach's house.  We listened to podcasts most of the way including some interesting ones on sanitation, diseases, facebook privacy, and aquaculture.  Apparenlty the winners of some MIT business award this past year was to build pay toilets in Kenya.  I disagreed with the aquaculture one- they talked about issues caused by farmraised fish on wild stocks, but I think they could have done a much better job talking about these effects along with pointing out that well managed fisheries are possible (such as various Alaskan fisheries).  Along the way, we also discussed environmental policy and came to the conclusion my brother is purely a theordical person with no understanding of reality. 

4 i 2012

0018- driving from Allen to College Station
0355- sleeping, after finally getting the animals settled in
1138- feeding the horses
1414- talking to Jim Cathey

Lunch- Lanes chicken plate
Dinner- Haiku bento box (beef), all california rolls

Random fact- Rinderpest has become the second disease in history to be erradicated (the first being small pox)

This morning we got the dog, cat, and Silvy's horses/donkey situated then went into work.  First I went and talked to Jim Cathey about hunting, trucks, and falconry.  Then I talked to Ms. Shirely and Shawn before heading over to Heep for more databasing fun.  Finished off the social visits of the day by going to Brad and Kira's (and Simon's) and drinking rye whiskey.  Then it was dinner and back to the lab for more work while my sister applied for a job with Homeland Security (scary thought).

New dog [HRE]

0420- sleeping
1913- driving from Kingman to Santa Fe
2035- eating pizza
2104- driving from Kingman to Santa Fe

Lunch- pork and potatoes
Dinner- sausage and peperoni pizza

Random fact- Airplanes dim the lights during take off and landing so your eyes are adjusted in case of emergency.  They also have you turn off all electronics so there are fewer distractions.

The morning was spent getting a new rim for the trailer and having the old tire patched- seeing the guys work on the tires reminded me of the summer of 2006 when practically every afternoon was spent having a tire repaired.  The exciting news is I am taking Schubert, Harry's treeing fiest he uses to flush and re find quail) home with me, I'm really excited since I've wanted to steal her since she was a puppy.  Since Harry and Jamaica were going hawking at the same time Maria and Eddie were arriving in Kingman, Beth took me down to town to meet them.  It's always sad leaving Harry and Beth's, they are truly fun to spend time with, between the hawking, stories, and food I always look forward to my visits.   Uneventful drive to Santa Fe, the kitten didn't even try and drive this time, and we established lap giraffes, kangaroos, and Komodo dragons would be amazing pets...

Heading west

0725- sleeping
0813- starting to get things organized so we can scatter to the winds
1212- sleeping as my sister, brother, and I head west
1925- transferring my stuff from Maria's car into Harry and Beth's

Lunch- 10 piece chicken nugget, fries, and a sweet tea at McDonald's (the KFC was shut down)
Dinner- beef and pork pieces, rice, and bread with some single malt

Random fact-  Samoa and Tokelau are moving back across the international date line, so now they are aligned with various Asian countries that are their current trading partners.  They moved to the US side of the dateline in 1892 to facilitate trade with the US.  This switch means there will be no 30 December 2011, although people scheduled to work that day will be paid as if they did.

One of my favorite things about falconry is the fact that there are few enough falconers there are just one or two degrees of separation between each of us no matter where in the world we are.  Back when I was a first year apprentice I used this to get in touch with Harry McElroy, a falconer in Arizona who has written a number of books on falconry, and managed to talk him into letting myself and 4 other college kids into staying at his house one night on our way to a conference.  Since then we've kept in touch and I usually come visit he and Beth for a week or so each season.  My brother, sister and I headed west this morning about 930, stopped for bagels in Albuquerque with the kitten to keep us amused (seriously, how can she possibly think sleeping wedged between the door and the front seat, with her head behind the seat and her feet on the arm rest is comfortable?).  This year I had to leave the birds home due to the truck drama, but between Harry and Jamaica's there will be enough falconry to keep me out of trouble. 

on the road again

0428- sleeping
0533- still sleeping
1024- on the road to Santa Fe
2103- still on the road, in Oklahoma, going to stay in Amarillo tonight
  
Lunch-10 piece chicken nuggets and a small fry at McDonald's
Dinner-burger and ice cream sundae at Braums

Random Fact- The Halifax Explosion of 1917 is the largest accidental, man made explosion in history.  It also was the largest man made explosion in history until the atomic bombs came along.  It was estimated to have the power of 3 kilotons of TNT, killed 2000+ people, resulted in a fire and tsunami (and was immediately followed by a blizzard), and blinded so many people it is credited with spurring many advances in eye care/treatment.

My mom was feeling better this morning, so off we went to Santa Fe.  The high point of the drive was stopping in Little Rock and buying my new rifle- a Remington 700 (7mm rem) with scope.  We finished one book and got half way through another, both novels where the main character is a medical examiner of some flavor.  Finally arrived in Amarillo about 2, Maria, Eddie, and the kitten were already there so we got settled in and watched some TV before calling it a night.  We'll see what the roads are like in the morning, apparently the woman at reception told my sister the roads to NM are still really bad, and possibly closed...

All kinds of fun

20 xii 2011

0247- sleeping
0333- sleeping
2153- Finishing up our Double Dave's
2357- Trying to pack up so I can leave early tomorrow
 
Lunch-some ham and cheese 
Dinner- pizza rolls 
 
Random Fact- Texas A&M is one of 6 Senior Military Colleges in the US, and supplied more officers in WWII then the combined totals of the US Naval Academy, and US Military Academy (and more than 3times the total of any other Senior Military College)

Worked on campus most of the day and got another 100 specimens databased.  Eric dropped me off at the mechanic and I picked up my truck.  I went out to Dale's to show them the pictures, and noticed my truck was leaking some antifreeze and also diesel was seeping out from under the fuel cap.  It got worse as I drove around more this evening, but when I went to syphon some fuel out of the tank it was all back to normal.  Spent the rest of the night gathering my stuff to head east tomorrow, I'd like to leave shortly after Dumas's vet appointment so I don't get into MO too late.

21 xii 2011

0656- sleeping
0856- running out the door to go pick up Dumas out at Dale's
1331- waiting for my truck to get refixed
1418- still waiting for my truck, I've managed to replace the air filter at my sisters apartment and make her a sign welcoming her home from the engineering building
 
Lunch-left over Double Dave's pizza rolls   

Random Fact- Leptospirosis is a disease in mammals caused by a spirochaete bacterium.  Dumas got his booster shot for this today. 

Day started as planned- got up too early and took Dumas to the vet where the vet was happy to see a dog that wasn't over weight.  Got home and noticed there was a bunch of antifreeze in the parking lot where my truck was parked, let the truck cool down and discovered no coolant in the radiator.  Poured 2g of water in and then took it to the shop where it was discovered the gasket on the thermostat wasn't properly sealed.  Finally was on my way 6 hrs later than planned, and had an uneventful drive until just after I crossed into Alabama about 0300 when my truck stalled.  Got out and diesel was coming out the rear tank and I had no fuel in the filter, so I primed the engine and 3 miles later it stalled again so I called AAA.

22 xii 2011

0232- driving through Mississippi
0319- getting my engine primed
1854- at my parents getting ready for dinner
2352- bout to go to bed, not sleeping last night is catching up, but the CNBC special on the Mexican Drug War is really interesting
 
Lunch-left over pizza 
Dinner- chili cheese dog   

Random Fact- Mexican drug cartels are involved with importing 70% of the drugs which enter the US.  Joaquin Guzman, the head of one of the cartels is one of the richest and most powerful men in the world according to Forbes

The tow truck arrived at about 530, we loaded up Betsy, and headed towards Birmingham. At 615 I called Mike and asked if he knew of any diesel mechanics in that area (the only one he could find was the Ford dealership).  The tow truck didn't want to start when we stopped for some snacks, but after fiddling with the fuel pump we were back on the road.  Ended up getting picked up by my mom in Tuscaloosa and Betsy went to a shop the tow guy (who also owns land for rock disposal in 4 states, 15 tow trucks, and 2 mechanic shops including a semi truck/diesel shop) owned there.  We dropped off Dumas at the kennel and then had a lazy day at home since we were all pretty tired (and to top it off my mom has bronchitis).

Glowworms [HRE]

9 xii 2011
1134- sleeping, sorrowfully back in my bed
1248- sleeping soundly
1439- meeting with Emily
2052- Picking up the camper van

Lunch- a banana, some salami, and 1/5 a gallon of milk
Dinner- Beer battered fish and chips with a hard cider.

Well I slept on the balcony until about 4, when I woke up and the noise was too much for me to go back to sleep.  I was surprised though how warm it was out there, minus the noise it was quite present.  Woke up about 815, ate a chocolate croissant as I walked to the conference center and met with Emily Fountain.  She gave me the details on her DNA protocol.  She too was using the DNAEasy kit, and that worked great with stuff younger than the 1970s, but anything older and she needed to do silica based extractions.  Once she figured out her protocol though she had really good success.  She's been trying to graduate, but with the earthquakes getting specimens from the Christchurch museum was impossible.  Finally she was able to get some from BMNH, apparently weevils are no easier than leafhoppers to get on loan from there. We talked some more and I discovered I had found my Pennsylvanian (by way of New Zealand) clone.  She wanted to do 2 PhDs but the university wouldn’t let her co enroll, one doing her weevil work and the other on frogs.  I told her about my disjunct research interests.  Then I found out her roommate is from the UK and trying to become one of the first falconers in NZ, and fly Harriers (NZ falcon is endangered on the south island).  I mentioned my need for grassland leafhoppers and she said she was going to be in the field checking her traps on Sunday so she would collect any leafhoppers for me and could meet me at the airport with them.  Then just as we were about to part ways she mentioned she had a chewing lice side project.  We are actually doing similar things with different groups of birds (passerines vs. raptors).  She's going to Australia in a few months to collect lice so if she gets any raptor lice shell send them my way and I'll try to get some North American passerine lice for her.  Small world.  Then I pulled down my poster and headed back to the hotel to finish packing.  We caught the shuttle, got to the airport and checked in.  We ate some lunch and then called my Grandpa George to wish him a happy 97^th birthday, then boarded our flight.  I slept most of the way, until just before we landed in Christchurch.  The countryside looked amazing as we landed.  Caught another shuttle and got dropped off at the campervan place.  We got our van sorted and then we were off.  Driving wasn’t nearly as hard as I remember it to be, I think walking around the city a few days getting use to the flow of traffic helped a lot, because I didn’t make any mistakes.  My mom though the first thing she told me was I was in the wrong lane (nope, defiantly the correct one).  The drive was beautiful, passing a lot of farm land and some reserves also, then reached Lake Tickapo at about 7.  The lake was a brilliant blue, from the sediment caused by glacial erosion.  The sky here is also suppose to be the best in NZ, and there is an observatory just up the mountain.  However, the clouds were a bit much and so I don’t think we'll get a good view of the sky tonight.  I went and set up some YPTs and then we went to dinner at a place in town.  The town was walking distance away so we followed the lakeshore there.  Dinner was amazing, the fish was quite tasty..  My cider was also really good, as was my parents black beer.  I finished up my mom's pint for her,  quite a sacrifice.  On the walk back we stopped and took some pictures of night falling, (about 2200), and I chased rabbits, hoping to decrease their fitness a bit and maybe if I was lucky kill a couple or lead to their demise.  I also  picked up a dead bird, but it was too long dead to get lice off of.  Once back at the van my dad and I went on a hunt for Myerslopia without any success. We did see a weird looking lep that seemed to have reduced wings and couldn’t fly.  We gave up searching after maybe 30 minutes, the leaf litter was too compact and dry I think for good habitat for a flightless leafhopper, so hopefully we'll have better luck somewhere else.  The sky cleared a little, and we got a good view of the southern cross and Orion (upside down of course) before calling it a night. 

Random Fact: Lake Tekapo gets its brilliant blue color from rock flour- the pulverized bits of rock produced by glaciers as they move.  The particles are suspended in the water, and the way they interact with light make the water very blue.  This also happens in Alaska, although these seem more blue green instead of blue grey like you see there.

10 xii 2011

359- Getting my tent on top of the van put up.  I ended up having to stand on the tire and turn the bar in order to keep the bar from falling out
857-Sleeping
1344- Eating breakfast- peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  I tried to lure the mallards in with my crusts, but only got them within 4ft or so before they wouldn't get closer
2040- About an hour from Te Anau.  My mom was driving, she did pretty good actually.

Lunch- I had some strawberries we got at a roadside stand.  The stand had a  bunch of coins from all over the world pasted on a map.  Pretty cool idea, I think I'll do something like that.  They didn't have any Swazi coins, and I couldn't remember if I had any in my backpack still.
Dinner- Sausage, Pepperoni, and tomato pizza at an Italian restaurant (complete with Italian music and people wearing shirts with Italy maps).  The pizza was pretty good

My mom woke me up about 830, I slept pretty well up in my tent.  I had a sandwich for breakfast, put the tent away (which took a while to figure out and the assistance of the guy across the road), then went and picked up my traps. There were a few leafhoppers in them, and some other insects, including a bunch of larvae.  Once I was back we loaded up and I drove over to the town center.  We walked to the collie statue. It looked a lot like Dapher pup, we took a bunch of pictures.  There was also a small church right by it, but there was a wedding going on so we didn’t get to go inside.  We then walked to the information center, and got reservations for tonight at Te Anau, the glowworm cave and Milford Sound.  I saw there was a bird trapped inside the shop, so I caught it and took it outside.  It didn't seem to have any lice on it, but it's hard to say without being able to dust it.  Turned it loose and then once my parents were done we headed off.  I got stuck behind some slow dude, passed him then shortly thereafter my mom wanted me to pull over so she could get a picture of the lake.  I did, and the guy passed me, since he was still going about 70km/h I caught up with him shortly and had to pass him again.  This happened a few more times, including when we stopped to get a picture of Mt. Cook, which was visible for a bit when the clouds cleared.  Eventually I decided it was open road enough my mom could try driving, so I let her give it a whirl.  She did pretty well.  We stopped at a fruit stand and got some dried apricots, nuts, and a carton of strawberries.  The views for the entire drive were pretty amazing, we went through a gorge where they do bungee jumping, but no one was jumping when we went by.  We got to Te Anau about 1700, went to the store and picked up some paper towels, and then found our campsite.  Then we walked into town, figured out what was going on with the glowworm tour, picked up some alcohol to keep my bugs in at the pharmacy, and got dinner.  While we were waiting for our pizza my mom went to the grocery store and got the rest of the things on our list.  Then we went back to the campsite, got the tent ready, and then walked to the boat dock for the tour.  The ride across was nice, we stood on top the whole way.  Saw some ducks and some neat coves.  Apparently Lake Te Anau averages 200m deep, and so even though it isn't the largest by surface area, it is the largest by volume in Oceania.  Once we docked there was a short lecture on the cave system (it's about 7km long, but to get past the end of the tour you would need to dive through a submerged portion before it gets above the water table again), and the glowworms themselves.  Then we were divided into groups to enter the cave.  We were in the last group, so I wandered around outside for a little bit before coming back in for a short video on glow worms, including a segment of them fishing for food, and cannibalizing smaller glowworms.  Our group only had 10 people (the rest had 14), so that was nice. The walk through the cave was impressive- the glowworms looked like stars against the night sky.  The cave was young (about 12000 years maximum) so no stalagmites or stalactites over a few inches long.  Water flowed really fast through the cave and included some neat waterfalls.  At one point the glowworms were on a really low ceiling so we could actually see the threads they use to catch their food.  Once we got to the end of the walkway we boarded a small dingy and entered the glowworm grotto.  It was pitch black in there, with just pinpricks of light from the glowworms.  After whirling around in the boat for a few minutes we were taken back to the walkway and disembarked.  On the walk back we saw a long finned eel, which was about .8m long.  The largest reach 2m, and they are quite strong swimmers- they can swim against the current and can even climb waterfalls.  They breed once- in the ocean and the young make their way back to the caves.  As we were the last group in the cave, we went straight to the ferry and then we were off.  We again rode on top of the boat, although this time there were only a couple of us that braved the cold wind.  We are at a high enough latitude, it was still twilight even at 2215.  Back on shore we went searching for a bar to get a beer, but the only one open was too loud for the parentals to want to go to, so we went back to the campground.  I am currently sitting with the electronics charging them, since we have to charge them in the common area (apparently New Zealand campervans have a different plug then normal New Zealand outlets, so our extension cord won't work for the provided power…

Random Fact: Glowworms deploy silk threads, like fishing lines, which are sticky and covered with drops of a paralyzing agent.  When an insect hits one of these lines they become stuck and the glowworm reels the line up and sucks up the hemolymph.  A single glowworm can have a clump of up to 70 of these threads and it sits in the middle glowing to attract prey. 

Snow...

Driving from Alabama to Texas shouldn't involve 7 hours of snow.  From crossing into Mississippi, through Tennesse and Mousori (had to drop off the falcons), and until about 45 minutes east of Little Rock the snow was falling, in some areas quite heavily.  Dumas got to ride in the cab for most of it..  After a brief discussion about proper behavior for the regal hunting dog he is he did ok.  All that snow added hours to the drive so I finally arrived around 0430.

Often on these long drives I think about some really random things.  This time I was thinking about ways to document my life in some sort of non boring fashion.  My grandpa (he turns 96 next week) told me to write down a few sentences each day about what I did, so that way when I'm as old as he is I can read them and remember the fun.  I guess he's been doing this for decades...  Being a wildlife biologist though I thought it would be more amusing to sample myself at random times like we would doing a natural history study.  So each day I will record what I'm doing during 4 random 15 minute time periods during the day.  Because my sleeping habits are so weird I've decided to sample across 24 hours, not restrict myself to an 18hr stretch or something like that.  As such, some days the random points could be pretty boring...  I will also summarize the day with 3 things- a 5 sentence description of the day, my lunch/dinner menu, and some random fact I learned.  Should be at least moderately interesting I hope.

1043: sleeping.  Quite soundly.

1609: talking to Ira.  Apparently I have to grow up and become a productive member of society sometime, and I should start looking at the jobs out there now to get an idea on how to do it.  My post PhD future was a hot topic all day today. Apparently passing prelims causes this.

1738: putting leafhopper specimens to be returned to The (don't forget the "The" or they get upset) Ohio State University insect collection in unit trays, counting each specimen (over 1000...) and making sure the datebase matched reality.

2102: eating dinner at Bostons with Eric.  Probably talking about diesel trucks.

Nice to be back where I belong, AKA College Station.  Being I slept until noon, not much productive got done today, although I figured out why my database count didn't match reality and fixed it.  This means the OSU loan can get shipped back to OSU, and I can cross another loan off the list.  I need to start thinking more seriously about my plan for the real world.  Post docing in a conservation genetics lab seems like a good idea, and would keep options open for applying for jobs that are more conservation/wildlife oriented or more phylogenetics oriented.

Lunch- Dixie Chicken- Freddy burger on toast, with cheese, tomatoes, and mustard (they forgot the pickles and put lettuce on instead).  Cheese  Fries.  Dr. Pepper.  This meal is heaven on earth, and they were playing a good mix of Texas Country, College Station country, and country.  With Maria, sat on the porch, near where our names our carved.

Dinner- Boston's with Eric.  Had a pepperoni pizza, a shiner, and a Pepsi.  Funny how chordate anatomy resulted in multiple long term friendships.  What an amazing class.

Random fact: American alligators have unidirectional airflow in the parabronchi.  Previously only birds were thought to have unidirectional airflow (making avian respiration completely different from other verts). 

Guatemala Day 3

We left the hotel a bit after 7am and drove northwest. We were heading up CA2 almost all the way to the Mexican boarder. I fell asleep pretty soon after leaving and didn’t wake up until we got to the town where we wre stoping for breakfast. We went to a chicken fastfood place but it was so packed in there we couldn’t find a place to sit so we went next door to burger king. I ordered bacon and orange juice in spansih with minimal help, not bad. It cost 10.25Q, so not even 2 bucks. Not bad. We ate and AMC decided she wanted a BK crown so JRJ got her one which she wore outside. On TV GWB was appointing a new head of the CIA or something, guess well find out what happened when we get back to the states. Next stop was the grocery store which strangely enough was inside a mall. On the way in we passed at least 6 different shoe stores including payless. This store was quite a bit larger and actually had a lot of food. I got peanut butter (jif), a can of spam, 2 apple juice and 2 mango orange juices both kenrs. I also got a pigma pen like I was using in dominica. All for a total of 82Q. We walked back to the truck when JRJ decided he needed to go to the restroom. So as usual we were standing around waiting on JRJ to get his act together. We headed off back down the road then stopped for gas at Esso aka Exxon, complete with a tigermart. It was a full service gas station so the attendant came out pumped our gas, cleaned the windows etc. It was my 1st experience with that since even in dominica you had to pump your own gas which was quite amusing to watch since neither JBW or Lacher could figure out how to open up the gas tank- how many phds does it take to pump gas? Then it was back on the road. I fell asleep again and woke up as we were coming up to our 1st collecting spot. It was a bridge off the highway over a large fast flowing river. The area was sandy but had a lot of trash. We jumped out and I started sweeping. Got some cool things considering how disturbed it was including some Flattids, cool looking membracids, and some new cicadellids. I chased down an ascilid also. Dave and jose found some ant lion pits and sifted out a few 3rd instars. We were all waiting on JRJ as usual who was off who knows where. Dave suggested we but a leash on him and take turns being the josh keeper. Back on the road we pulled off at a second bridge. This one was near a town and a bunch of people were bathing and doing laundry. The area was very disturbed but Dave got some good mayflies. I went and swept alittle but didn’t get anything of interest and only a couple leafhoppers at that. It was totally reminiscent of the little brazos as far as appearance, diversity, and set up. Strange. So AMC and I sat on the tailgate and drank juice (me) and boxochoclate milk (AMC) and talked about collecting methods. After a while everyone else was ready to go so we loaded back up into the truck and drove north. We went through a goodsize town looking for a place to buy pesticides for JRJs fogger. We couldn’t see anything (we were looking for buildings with syngenta or bayer logos) and jose figured itd be further down so we kept driving. The streets were packed with trycilce jeep deals called toktoks or something like that since that’s the brand. We eventually made it most of the way down the road with no luck. Jose stopped and asked someone walking down the street and he said it was just a few building down. Of course they were closed. So we asked someone else who pointed us to a pet shop so that was a no go. We kept heading out of town and found a place to collect near this huge fast river. We parked in someones dirt garden and climbed out. The dog on the roof of the house started barking at us and jose yelled something at the woman who appeared. Apparently we got permission and we started collecting. This site was really good for hoppers. Some cool looking membracids and a couple species of leafhopper I hadn’t collected yet. I also caught a green lacewing. After 30 min or so dave said we needed to get going so we all climbed back up to the truck. JRJ was of course nowhere to be seen so we got all our stuff loaded up and then he appeared saying hed found somemore pits and he needed a shovel. So he took AMCs trowel and went to dig some up. After a while he said he had enough and we headed back down the hill. There were tons of kids running around I think school had just gotten out. We got back on the main road and started going south a different way then we came. We went over a road that had gotten totally destroyed by a hurricane. It got washed out and the water must have been 10-20ft deep. It moved around some huge rocks also. Very impressive. We made it back to the road wed came in on and after a bit went through a town with a circus tent. As we drove past Jose spotted a chemical store and circled back around to check it out. It was mainly a feed store and as david pointed out contained pictures of happy dogs, cats, sheep, and chickens along with a pissed off looking cow. Jose and JRJ got out and bought the pesticide to try in the fogger. Sortly after that we stopped at a shell station to buy some snacks. I got AMC and I some peanut M&Ms. JRJ got some sugar covered peanuts then tried to explain them by saying the were like what you eat at Christmas which made all the rest of us deiced he was crazy. Then it was back in the truck where conversation rapidly degraded into making fun of josh for trying to tell us fables. AMCs like your boring and im not listening anymore. Dave started telling stories of things hed seen in the philipeans. We made it back to the hotel after dark- thered been a ton of traffic and some accidents along the way which made the going really slow. It also started raining toward the end and we had to get out and move our stuff into the cab. We got back to the hotel and honked to get let into the compound. There wasn’t a guard within hearing distance apparently so jose got out and got one to let us in. We stopped to see if the office was still open and luckily it was. We paid 82 US for 3 nites plus 3 meals. Not cheep but not too bad. I used up all my extra money on that so hopefully I can find someplace to get more money. Turns out they have internet in the office so I ran back to the room and got stuff ready to go pull traps and then went back to use the internet. Eventually it was my turn and I e-mailed grandpa, mom, and JAC. I told JAC about my morpho but not about the cool ant mimics since AMC and I decided to suprise him with those.Once we were done with the net AMC and I went back to the rooms and found jose to go pick up our traps. We told JRJ wed pick up his trap also. We had a good time driving up there talking about the differences in collecting styles. That’s been a big issue me and AMC like lots of stops short duration while JRJ and dave prefer staying in one spot for an extended period. This caused some headbutting for planning tomorrow since we could either go south and hit some new places or head east and go the the reserve right away. I really wanted to go south as did jose and AMC. JRJ never really said which he wanted and dave didn’t want to go south. We eventually decided to head south but make only 2 stops and try to get to the reserve by 3. Jose got the 1st 2 malasie traps along with JRJs fogging sheet which shockingly enough had virtually no bugs while AMC and I picked up pan traps. We got somemore ant mimic membracids and a good number of cicadellids. I think we left a couple traps out though since when it was all said and done I only counted 26 eventhough I though id put out 30. o well. It was rather amusing since AMC was just telling me she hated snakes after hearing a rustling noise she though was either a snake or a puma when jose showed up with a small snake. It was brown and grey with a faint pattern. Lookeds similar to a garder snake in body shape. AMC was rather amused. Back at the truck we were talking about how annoying the jars were to deal with and Jose said he uses woorl packs straight on the head. This makes a ton of sence and I think were going to give this a try. Next stop was the malaise trap set across the path by a stream a bit further up the road. This trap had a ton of bugs and was much easier to take down than putting it up had been, or maybe since I couldn’t see the fact I was hanging over the edge of the embankment I didn’t think about falling down into the stream. We then went all the way up to the top turned around and collected the one in the bamboo patch. It also had a pretty good sample for only being out 24 hrs or so. The final trap was the one set up along the embankment. There were only a couple bugs in this trap it was kinda an experimental placement and guess it needs some modification. We loaded everything into the truck and drove down to the rooms. The traps were a bit damp so the 3 of us hung them up on the porch to dry out. Jose went to bed and AMC and I ate dinner of tuna, crackers, and peanut butter. I also had a can of mango apple juice. We turned on some country and had a grand old time singing and feeding as Aubrey called dinner. Then it was time for bed.

Its interesting the differences between here and dominca. Dominica seems much poorer in many ways. Most of the houses there were really run down while these while not the suburbs or anything weren’t in horrible shape. Something that struck me in dominica was that when you were in Roseau there were people everywhere just sitting around not doing any actual work no matter what day or time it was. Here people seem poor but are all working. They are fairly well dressed in the towns and everyone has some form of shoes. Out in the country the workers are all wearing pretty dirty clothes but you go by the houses and everyone has wash hung up. Also the dogs are radically different . Dominica had few dogs and most of those were quite skinny and didn’t look too good coat wise. There are tons of dogs running around but most of them look to be in ok shape. Theyre not fat but theyre not skin and bones either in most cases. Ive only seen a couple mangy dogs also. Many are even identifiable breeds especially rotties and German Shepards. The roads are also in much better shape as are the cars. Most people here have trucks or suvs and many of them are in pretty good shape- still shiny and newish. A lot of them are diesel which is very cheap (18-19Q) vs regular gas (22-23Q). Ive learned a ton on this trip. Dominica was so easy as far as gear since as quartermaster of the expedition I could just assign people to bring any gear I wanted but couldn’t fit. This time I had 2 bags and that was all I had to deal with. Im learning what I actually need for how I collect which ive discovered is about the same stuff as I thought (exciting) but that as far a malaise traps go there are some spacesaving possibilities such as not using jars. AMC agreed that this was a great learning experience. I think it’s the only way to learn since collecting back in the states is a totally different ball game in many respects- you forget something you can find it at walmart. It also helps that I didn’t have woolley telling me everything to bring etc. I had to plan it out and figure out what I needed and what I could do without so I actually learned some.

Collecting: Day 1

We started the day at 520 when I finally woke up. Packed up as quick as I could and then we headed out to the lobby. Jose was there waiting for us. He loaded up all our gear and we climbed into the truck. We drove to Antequa, a touristy town. Its kinda like santa fe with regs to keep it looking the same. The drive was uneventful, not many people on the road or anything probably cause it was so early. We got to antequa and drove around looking for a place to eat. Nothing local was open so we went to burgerking although from the outside it was totally different looking. We ordered our food with jose’s help (at least I knew how to say orange juice) and then ate. There were live plants in the bulidng kinda like a small rainforest and a huge flat screen very strange mix of things in this country. I ate my bacon and drank my juice and once everyone but slow eating josh was done we loaded back up and drove to our 1st site. Along the way david mentioned a place where the one mayfly is only known from so we went to check that out since it was on our way. We passed a bunch of volcaos including Agua and Fugo. They are both still active and Fugo periodically erupts but its not a very violent eruption. Also it apparently glows at night from the lava flowing down. We got too zataco and took some pictures and got a gps reading. Its an old farm that’s been in operation for over 100 years. Along the way we went over a number of streams so on the way back we stopped at 3 of them. The first one we went too was in a valley and while the stream was quite full the surrounding area was very dry. I collect in a sort of seep area surrounded by a hill on 3 sides. There were mainly thorny plants but some flowers and grasses. After sweeping in there for awhile I headed up the hillside on the rocks and collected off of trees hanging down into the seep along with vegetation tops from in the seep. Once I had walked all the way around I headed up on top of the hill for a few more sweeps. The entire area couldn’t have been more that 50 ft across. I caught some cool bugs though including some wasps. Fugo erupted a couple times and you could hear it, sounded like thunder. The next site was a lot wetter since the stream seemed to flow slowly across a grassy area. The leafhopper collecting in the grass was great although I think the natives though we were crazy since we kept passing them in our truck then stopping and theyed pass us. I guess they were walking to town for market. The leafhopper diversity was quite high in the grass, and I collected a number of bugs I haven’t seen before. We then moved onto a 3rd stream site. This one was fairly far from the first 2 which were close to eachother. You had ot pay to enter the park 3q per person and then we collected along a trail that followed the stream. There were quite a few leafhoppers here also including some really cool looking Cicadellinae which were bright blue with red heads. They were so pretty. I think we have some in the collection I actually remember clearing some for dani while she was down I think. I collected on the hillsides and also in the trees. After this site we stopped for lunch at a small restaurant on the roadside. The server and menu were Spanish only so jose dealt with most everything. The special was veal, but after we all ordered it along with pinapple juice since that’s what came with it he said he was out of veal so we had talapia instead. It was served whole like in the carribean, and was quite tasty as was the rice and pinapple juice. It also came with some chicken soup which was good too once it cooled down to a luke warm temperature. I finished my juice and ordered a cherry coke type thing- tasted like a 7-11 slushy. We talked for a while then payed (40q a piece). On the way out josh spotted a lizard- turned out to be a basilisk (brown). They looked a lot like mine did but were brown with stripes. Very cool. We saw an adult male and a juvinel female. We stopped at a grocery store in between the restaurant and the place we were staying. Aubrey stayed to guard the truck and the rest of us went to the store. There wasn’t much food there- some canned tuna, a bunch of snack foods like chips and cookies and then some drinks- boxo milk and some cokes. There was also office supplies, shoes and clothes, furnature and other random goods. I got 2 cans of tuna, some chips, and some drink mix. We also drove past a passed out drunk guy on the sidewalk. Then we drove to the finca(farm) we are staying at for the next 3 days. It’s a 10000 acre coffee plantation/reserve with a lot of primary forest. The plan of attack was to quickly unpack then go set up malaise and pan traps on site. On the way to the finca we saw a Crested caracaras and a bunch of Black vultures. Jose knows a fair amount about birds and said you can see King vultures at the finca. Hes seen aplos on the coast also. Turns out he likes the group of scarbs the wtx green ones are in and really wants to trade for some. I think Dave Marqua could set him up. At the finca I swapped out gear to get ready for malaise trap madness then we headed up the mountain. As we left the residents were sorting coffee beans. On the road jose said there were a lot of aqoties around. Josh and jose saw a squirrel in a tree above the road. We got to the stream site after a bit of steep climbing in the truck and AMC and I started trying to decied where to put up the traps. JRJ offered to help then said hed suggest putting them along streams which I promptly shot down. So AMC (as aubrey will now be known) and I found a great narrowing so we set it up there. The set up was techniquly challenging with no good vertical surfaces. There was a diagonal bamboo stem about 4 in thick so I hung the head off of there then went across the rocks and tied on to a branch on the other side. We then tried to anchor the sides but ran into some length issues. So we moved some rocks around and tied onto a big rock the other side was really sort and I didn’t want to use the rope so I tied onto a branch, but it wasn’t stretched tight enough. So we tried to use leafs to tie the branch back, but the leafs kept splitting. AMC and I looked up and saw JRJ (as josh will now be known) dancing around trying to brush stuff off. He went running over towards the stream still dancing around. We were rather amused and since he didn’t seem to be really concerned we figured he was not in danger of immanent death. We went back to trying to figure out how to tie the branch back and AMC realized we could use a vine. She went and found a good one and we lashed it back. JRJ came over and said he had been swarmed be sweat bees. While AMC was finishing up the vine work I got a long leaf and used that as an anchor to tie back the edge of the malaise trap. All in all it was a very nature malaise trap. Wharton would be proud. The second trap was also a challenge it went right across the stream and was tied onto a small tree thing. JRJ put the head up since hes the tallest of the 3 of us and then we tried to get it anchored all the way around. The head was pulling the tree down so the trap was right over the water. So we tied the branch back to another branch to get it a bit higher off the water. Once we got that one all tied up AMC and I set up YPTs starting at the river then heading up the hill. We put out 30 and they were catching stuff immediately. We set a couple up on top of logs and rocks but most were on the ground. We put the 1968 penny AMC found heads up in the truck as our lucky penny. Back at the truck we loaded up and I jumped in the bed of the truck. David had said someone could ride in the back and that sounded pretty heavely to me so I climbed back there. We headed up the mountain, it was pretty steep and the truck had some trouble in a couple places. There were some cool looking streams we went over that looked like they could be good for collecting off to the sides on. We turned around after a while and I yelled at AMC I was going to use her net so I could collect on the way back down. I tried to hit all the overhanging vegetation I could reach along with some of the low stuff. We got back to where we put the traps and david yelled back they were going to be going faster so I might want to get back in the cab. I figured we couldn’t be going too fast on that road so I stayed back there. After a bit he kicked it in 4 wheel and then I heard a loud squeeling noise. It first I though it was the truck but then I realized we were getting closer to it then farther away. Turns out it was a cicada. A bit farther down the road they spotted a hawk in a tree and stopped. I though they said moth so I was looking for a fluttering morpho or something but then realized they said hawk so I switched search images and spotted it in a tree. Looked lika like a coopers or something similar, but it was pretty dark so hard to say. A bit further down an agouti crossed the road. Then we saw a banana picker with a huge load so we stopped and gave him a ride. When we passed the owners house we stopped and watched the agoutis in his yard, kinda like Brothers Lukes I guess. Jose dropped the picker off and we went to where we were running lights except jose forgot to grab the sheets so we went back. I ran in to grab my kill jars but had a bit of troble jumping out of the bed since there was a ditch I didn’t see. O well. Got my stuff then back to the truck. We went a bit faster down the road this time it was so much fun. Set up the light sheets and started collecting. Dinner was at 8 and we had chicken lazania, broccoli, corn, and fruit. I had tea to drink. Then back to the lights. We caught some cool stuff, including a cool looking Fulgoridae.