Entomological Expedition To Panama 2025

Day 1 – Panama City

• Welcome to Panama City! Feel free to explore until we meet at our hotel before heading into the heart of the Panama rainforest tomorrow. Get your hot shower in while you can.
• We’ll meet for dinner for an informal briefing on what you can expect during our expedition, and to get to know each other. This is important, as we’ll be working, living, and sharing much of our space together.

Day 2 – Hello Cocobolo!

• After breakfast at the hotel, we’ll load up onto a bus bound for the outskirts of Panama City, where we’ll transfer to the necessary 4×4’s for the rest of our journey deep into the rainforest.
• Upon arrival we’ll gather for lunch. Our hosts will provide us with some information about the reserve and we’ll have a quick safety briefing. We’ll discuss our research objectives and planned field “work”.
• After dinner, we’ll end the night as we will every night we’re at Cocobolo…. with our insect light sheet for a look at the insect diversity of the region.

• Guided Treks – We will go on several treks designed to discover insects using tracking methods such as leaf-miner activity, presence of frass, nesting activity, and feeding evidence.  Armed with our UV flashlights, we’ll also take a night trek or two to find elusive nocturnal species.
• Bioblitz – Using the iNaturalist App on our phones, we’ll contribute to a global biodiversity project at Cocobolo with our ongoing “bioblitz”.

Days 3-8 – Our Work Begins

The activities listed below are the highlights for our next 6 days.

• Expedition Entomology Research Project – Our top priority is the Expedition Entomology research project. Each day we’ll work on our joint research initiative which could entail any of the activities listed below along with fascinating research techniques and behavioral analyses.
• Aquatic Insect – We’ll wade into the Mamoni River to record the benthic macroinvertebrate (aquatic insect) populations to contribute to a river health survey.
• Pitfall Traps – We’ll create and dig our own pitfall traps.  Each participant will have their own pitfall trap to monitor over the course of our stay at Cocobolo. This is a great method to discover ground-dwelling invertebrates such as beetles, millipedes, centipedes, spiders, etc.
• Canopy Research – We may have the opportunity to assist in camera trapping and research needs of the endangered Margay while recording canopy insect diversity.

Insect Light Sheet – We’ll end every night with our Mercury Vapor and/or UV light set up to attract thousands of insects from the comfort of our camp.  This is a relaxing way to visualize the incredible diversity of insect life in the reserve. (Head nets are recommended for those with long hair, or if you just don’t like insects flying into your face).

We’ll have a farewell dinner on our final night, and review all of our hard work with some other fun activities.