Now I suppose this will interest only a subset of our photography enthusiasts here, but I wanted to call attention to an upcoming week-long course on insect photography in Belize, whose instructors include two superb nature photographers that I’ve often featured on this site: Piotr Naskrecki and Alex Wild.
The flyer is below, and the website for the course is here. I’m told that there are only a few slots left.
Besides the photography instruction, of course, there’s plenty of chances to learn natural history from experienced field biologists. Here, for example, is a photo Wild took during the last class (the caption from PopSci):
In the jungles of Belize last January, entomologist Alex Wild noticed something odd about the trap-jaw ants passing through his outdoor insect photography class: They all had shrunken heads and swollen abdomens. A day after making the observation, Wild and his students came upon an ant with a worm bursting out of its side. Parasites were at work. Nematode worms enter the ants as larvae and grow inside the ants’ body cavity, siphoning off nutrients and distorting their hosts’ natural anatomy. When the eight-inch-long nematodes are ready to mate a few weeks later, they push their way out of their half-inch-long hosts, killing them.
Oh man. I wish I had time and money. This is right up my alley!
Pretty much what I thought!
Oh, man. Now I got to sit here in the upper midwest with my rather routine life. Belize… exotic arthropods… parasitic nematodes…. Please tell me this place is infested with swarms of terrestrial leeches!
No, not leeches. But, the lodge also makes gourmet cheeses, so we’ll be having nice cheeses interspersed with our insect nerdery.
It’s times like these when I wish I could draw because I have a pretty amusing mental image of swarms of terrestrial leeches!
I haven’t been to Belize in many years, but I very much enjoyed my visits there. If you are interested in Belize fishes, might check out “Fishes of the Continental Waters of Belize” Greenfield and Thomerson, Univs Florida Press.
Hey, that’ only a few thousand miles and a few international borders away! If I start walking today….
b&
Reblogged this on Mark Solock Blog.
I would love to go but think of the carbon emissions that would be produced in a trans-Atlantic flight. That is why this world is disappearing down the drain. 🙁
Oooh, cheese too? I totally wish I had the talent to make it worth the trip. I love macro photography, but I kinda suck at it, because 1) I don’t practice enough and 2) I have a pretty cheap mostly point and shoot camera.