Dia de los Muertos and insects

I have been intrigued with Dia de los Muertos since I first leaned about it in the 1970s. This celebration is the perfect mix of ancient Mexican beliefs and Christian beliefs. One year in the early 1990s I was at Palenque, Mexico for the celebration and it was amazing.

But now, thinking about death the scientist in me also thinks about insects. In reality, insects recycle death, they put the nutrients back into the cycle of life. So here are a few insects from my recent trip to Brazil.

Interestingly while I was expecting to see a nice array of insects in southern Brazil there were very few. One the good side there were virtually no mosquitoes and very few biting midges. One the depressing side I saw very few butterflies and beetles. So here are a few from Brazil –

This Black Pondhawk was one of two Odonata that I saw. Considering we took five boat rides, each of more than two hours that’s surprising.

This black-clothed bumble bee confused me as it looked initially a lot like a fly, but it obviously has four wings.

Cornops aquaticus, a grasshopper that we had on one of the rivers.

On several days we saw leaf-cutter ants. I believe that these are in the genus Atta.

Varigated paper wasp building a nest on the underside of a leaf.

Starry night cracker, one of the few butterflies that we saw on the trip.

I’m thinking that since we were in Brazil at the end of the dry season most insects had not emerged yet. Then again, currently the planet is experiencing a dramatic decline in insects. I wouldn’t think that there would be a decline in this “apparently” pristine habitat but stranger things happen. The obvious answer is to go back and check on a similar site. Who knows, it might happen.

More later…