beulahbondo's Diaryland Diary
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Leaf-cutter ants
I love to travel, and I like to write, but I'm the worst when it comes to writing about travel. I don't even take notes on trips anymore. I took a few little notes in Costa Rica but then my notebook got wet and took days to dry...
So I'll start slowly. Leaf-cutter ants, above, were among my favorite critters in this land of critters. The first day Bcat and I saw them, the first day we were in Drake Bay, we saw these narrow sandy paths through the grass. Looked closer and saw two neat lines of ants, marching to and fro some distant point. Each ant carried a little sail of a bright green leaf above its head. March, march, march. We tracked them to the edge of the grass, where it dropped off about eight inches to the sand. The ants appeared to enter a hole, then turn around and go back for more leaves. But why?
We figured they were building a nest, but a few days later on a late-night bug walk with Tracy the entomologist (she's a story in herself), we learned that they chew up the leaves to make an enzyme (I think) that feeds a certain fungus that they then feed to their queen, who's down there in the hole. The queen lives about 20 years and when she's full of eggs, she's as big as a mouse.
Here's the best part. Once a year, all the female leaf-cutter ants leave their colony and mate like crazy, dozens of times in an hour with males from different colonies. Vive la difference! So he's black? So he's Reform, not Conservative? All the better! The female chooses one mate, becomes queen of a new colony, and everyone else gets to work cutting and carrying leaves.
At the time, I saw it as a metaphor for tourism, but as I relaxed into my vacation, I cut all such thoughts loose.
So: What else do you want to hear about? Here are some choices: dolphin bling bling; the other guests, including the famous animal communicator; the problematic and controversial men of Delfin Amor; Regalo the bird; the magnificent frigate; monkeys; the milk tree.
P.S. Read Peth's diary and take a side trip on the dialect survey. It's fun!
10:44 p.m. - 1970-01-12
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