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Mary Liz studying specimens in the collections of the Museo Nacional de Historia
Natural in Santiago, Chile. |
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Federico at the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural in Santiago.
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Shauna with her glaphyrids at theMuseo Nacional de Historia Natural
in Santiago.
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Mary Liz, Shauna, José Mondaca, Fede, and Matt admiring some Chilean
scarabs at the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural. |
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Fede and Shauna studying specimens at the National Museum in Santiago. |
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Off to collect at Parque Nacional Tolhuaca several hundred km south
of Santiago. |
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Vista in Parque Nacional Tolhuaca showing araucaria trees and snow-capped
peaks in the distance. This is early spring in this part of Chile. |
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Fede with araucaria trees in the
background at Tolhuaca.
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Termas de Tolhuaca, our base camp at Parque Nacional Tolhuaca.
Volcanic hot springs bubbled out of a cave directly behind the
photo and were then contained in a hot springs pool adjacent to
an icy cold stream. The hot springs made down time between afternoon
collecting and night lighting "pleasant." |
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Brett at Tolhuaca.
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Shauna, Matt, Fede, and Mary Liz in a Nothofagus forest
with bamboo understory at PN Tolhuaca. |
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Federico and Matt seeking specimens of Pycnosiphorus (Lucanidae)
from beneath the bark of a rotten tree trunk at Tolhuaca for Matt's
research. |
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Pycnosiphorus virgatus (Nagel) from Tolhuaca. He gave of himself
for science (literally . . . he was sequenced!).
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Mary Liz and Shauna with araucaria and beech trees in the background
at Tolhuaca.
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Araucaria seeds covered the ground in some high places
at Tolhuaca and were vaguely reminiscent in flavor to pine nuts. |
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Matt and Mary Liz looking for dung beetles in sheep droppings at
Tolhuaca. We encountered species of Aphodius, Dichotomius, Frickius,
and Ataenius. |
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Dichotomius torulosus from beneath horse droppings at Tolhuaca.
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Tarantula-like spider at Tolhuaca.
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A melolonthid scarab, Phytolaema mutabilis, at Tolhuaca. |
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After Tolhuaca and Parque Nacional Nahuelbuta (where we were
rained-out), we traveled to the Universidad de Concepción
to study collections in somewhat narrow aisles as attested to by
Mary Liz. |
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Jorge Artigas, curator of the collections at the Universidad
de Concepción. Jorge works on asilid flies and began the
collections here decades ago. |
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Juan Enrique Barriga, in addition to having his own vineyards,
is a dedicated entomologist living at Los Niches, about 30
km south of Curicó. His collection is very rich in
Chilean scarabs and lucanids. |
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Cajón de Maipo southeast of Santiago is a vastly different
habitat than the moist beech forests we had been used to. It is
rocky, dry, hot, and with many cacti. The flowers on the cacti,
however, were full of glaphyrids in the genus Arctodium,
the subject of Shauna's research. |
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Shauna, Fede, and Matt dissecting cactus flowers for Arctodium specimens. |
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Arctodium specimen
in a cactus flower. |
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Bust of Herman Burmeister at the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales in Buenos
Aires, Argentina. After leaving Germany, Burmeister was one of
the first directors of the Museo Nacional. He was killed when a
glass window pane fell on him. |
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Plaque in the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales commemorating
Burmeister.
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Matt working in the collections of the
Museo Argentino de Ciencias
Naturales
in Buenos Aires. |
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Part of a drawer of scarab types at the
Museo Argentino de Ciencias
Naturales
in Buenos Aires. |
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Light trapping on Isla Talavera on the Rio Parana de los Palmas
north of Buenos Aires. The BILLIONS of mosquitoes in the photo
are too small to see. |
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Shauna collecting at the lights on Isla Talavera near Zarate. Reiterating,
the BILLIONS of mosquitoes in the photo are too small to see.
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Brett and Mary Liz with saber tooth cat at the main entrance to the
Museo de La Plata south of Buenos Aires. We were hosted by Dra.
Analia Lanteri, who works on weevils. |
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