 OTS News
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OTS Specialty Course: Tropical Ferns and Lycophytes
OTS is once again, proud to offer the Tropical  Ferns and Lycophytes Specialty graduate course. This course is designed to build the diverse skills needed for floristic, taxonomic, phylogenetic, and ecological research on tropical ferns. It is an intense 15-day field introduction to the identification, classification, phylogenetics, ecology, and reproductive biology of tropical ferns and lycophytes.
It begins on January 9, 2013 and runs through January 23 at both the Las Cruces and La Selva Biological Stations. Faculty include Dr. Robbin Moran of New York Botanical Garden and Dr. James Watkins of Colgate University as well as invited professors Drs. Kathleen Pryer and Michael Windham, both of Duke University.
A link to course information can be found here or for registration, contact Barbara Lewis blewis@ots.ac.cr or view the OTS website at www.ots.duke.edu |
Going Green with Duke at OTS
The OTS North American Office was recently recognized for their effort to be a more sustainable workplace within the Duke University system. We are proud to announce that we received the Duke Green Workplace Certification through the Duke Sustainability Office this past June. The NAO staff worked closely with the Duke Sustainability Office to ensure that certain practices were in use in all of our office buildings, and went above and beyond to include the construction of our own compost bin. A huge thanks to Ed Stashko, Vice President for Global Programs and Partnerships, for building that for us!
We hope to do even more to improve the energy efficiency of our offices as we work towards an even greener workplace!
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Outreach and Events
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Successful Mixer
On August 7, 2012, OTS sponsored an All Tropical Biology mixer at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America in Portland, Oregon. More than 100 alums, instructors, staff, students and researchers gather ed to reconnect with old friends and hear updates of the OTS community of programmatic developments, course offerings, and grant and award competitions..The OTS Board was represented by Directors John Kress, Elvia Melendez-Ackerman, Bill Michener and Cindy Sagers. Also sharing the spotlight were long-time friends of OTS Deedra McClearn, Buck Sanford and Gary Hartshorn. This mixer is now a regular feature of the ESA meeting and has increased in popularity since its inception. Plans were also announced for 50th anniversary celebration to be held in June 2013 at the ATBC meeting in San Jose, Costa Rica.
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Current Faculty and Staff: Enrollment Management Seeks Your Assistance
The Enrollment Management Team is preparing to hit the road in an effort to recruit undergraduate students for our Tropical Biology, Global Health and African Ecology semester programs and our summer Global Health and Tropical Biology courses. Below you will find a link to the list of planned campus visits for Fall 2012. During our time on an individual campus, we attempt to reach out to as many relevant faculty/staff and interested students through study abroad fairs, scheduled meetings, classroom and student presentations, and tabling. If you are currently a member of the faculty/staff at any of these institutions or know colleagues at these schools, we would welcome your recruiting insights. The number one way in which OTS attracts students to our programs is through the direct outreach by a faculty/staff member to an individual student. Please know you can make a difference in the experience of a students and we would welcome your assistance in sharing the word about the life-changing undergraduate opportunities that OTS has to offer. Please feel free to contact us at otsadmissions@duke.edu.
FALL '12 POSSIBLE CAMPUS VISITS BY REGION
If you do not see your college or university on this list but would like to offer information to your students, please let us know and we will send to you our latest brochures and a PowerPoint presentation that can be shown to your class or advising group.
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| OTS-XTBG Joint Initiatives
Representatives of Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG), Chinese Academy of Sciences (Yunnan, China), and the National Science Foundation (NSF) met with OTS staff at Duke University on July 20-21 to discuss common interests in research, education and conservation in the tropics. XTBG, founded in 1959, is engaged in biodiversity conservation and sustainable uses of plant resources in China. Research at XTBG focuses on forest ecosystem ecology, conservation biology and plant varietal development. Facilities at XTBG include two field stations (Xishuangbanna Tropical Rainforest  Ecosystem Station and Ailaoshan Station for Forest Ecosystem Studies), horticultural collections, laboratories and a herbarium. Presentations by Dr. Cao Min (Deputy Director, XTBG) and Dr. Elizabeth Losos (President and CEO, OTS) were followed by discussions of potential OTS-XTBG partnering opportunities. Tentative plans for joint efforts in the upcoming year include exchanges of researchers and students to field stations and courses, and a workshop focused on Dimensions of Biodiversity. NSF Program managers were present to provide information on potential funding mechanisms and emerging opportunities at the National Science Foundation. If you would like further information regarding OTS-XTBG joint initiatives, please contact Ed Stashko at estashko@duke.edu
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Attention All OTS Students, Faculty, and Alumni:
 The OTS Membership Consortium Committee is pleased to announce the Fourth Annual OTS Student Paper Award. We invite nominations for a $500 cash prize for excellence in research via an outstanding publication in tropical biology written by a student.
Applications will be reviewed by a subcommittee of the OTS Assembly of Delegates. Papers will judged upon the paper's contribution to the field including originality, study design, and potential impact on the field of study.
Application deadline is Friday, October 19, 2012. Send nomination packet as a pdf file to the chair of the Awards Committee, Dr. Kim Smith at kgsmith@uark.edu. To download the flyer, click here. . Announcement of the award recipient will be made at the March 2013 OTS Assembly of Directors meeting and recognized at the 2013 ATBC meeting.
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Station Updates
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New Species of Dragonfly Discovered at La Selva
By Carlos de la Rosa
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Discovering new species of tropical insects is not very hard. There are so many of them that await discovery and proper description (and naming) by specialists called taxonomists. But to find a new species of a showy group like dragonflies in a very common and well visited the La Selva Biological Station, in Puerto Viejo de Sarapiquí, Costa Rica, is unusual. Add to that an uncommon habitat, bromeliads, and you have a story to tell. There are very few dragonflies that live in the waters held by bromeliads, those pineapple-looking plants that often shroud entire trees and branches in the rainforests. While bromeliads are common and it is well known that they are home to numerous species of insects, amphibians and other creatures, dragonflies tend to be scarce there.
This particular species of dragonfly seems to have been literally screaming to be found. The first evidence was found on bromeliad in a tree stump, at eye-level, on the side of a trail that leads to the station cabins and laboratories. It was so obvious and so blatant, we couldn't help seeing it! Interestingly, an adult of this species had been collected about ten years ago by Dr. David Wagner, sent to specialist Dr. Dennis Paulson for identification, who stored as an inconclusive identification waiting some additional information.
 | | The empty skin of the larva is still useful for the specialist that will describe the new species. |
Ten years later, the skins of the larvae (called exuviae) were seen clinging to the underside of the bromeliad leaves and something triggered in our minds. A few days after the first sighting, a fresh larva crawled out of the bromeliad at 6 a.m. and the adult was seen and photographed emerging from its larval skin. These amazing sightings triggered a more thorough search for other specimens and enough materials to describe it as a new species.
The new species belongs to the Neotropical genus Erythrodiplax, of the family Libellulidae, often referred to as "dragonlets" or small skimmers. Like its closely related species Erythrodiplax bromeliicola, found in Cuba and Jamaica, it seems to depend on a healthy population of bromeliads, which seem to thrive in well-developed forests. This new species represents a first for Costa Rica and for Central America in that no other species of dragonfly had been found before using bromeliads as their habitat. We look forward to unraveling its secrets in the months to come, figuring out its diet, its distribution, environmental requirements and life cycle. Stay tuned for the official naming of the new species in the next year or so.
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Field Notes
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Coleoptera Diversity and Systematics Graduate Course June 2012
We have completed our two-week course at La Selva and are preparing to depart for San Jose and then home. The time seemed to go by much too quickly. This was the first of what we expect will be a series of specialty courses dealing with the largest order of animals on Earth, Coleoptera, and it has been an amazing success.W
e had nine students from different science backgrounds and with different areas of expertise. But the common thread that tied us all together and made the course so much fun was our shared fascination with beetles.
After a brief orientation period the students initiated a class project (everyone), group projects (3 people/group) and individual projects. The time was short but everyone worked hard to maximize productivity during this high pressure crucible of coleopterology.
A rapid assessment project was implemented during a
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Looking for army ant inquilines
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3-day visit to Veragua Rainforest and Adventure Park. A tropical weather system brought torrential rain that made it more of a challenge than we had anticipated, but such are the vagaries of rapid assessment surveys in the tropics.
The class project was a diel study to compare day and night beetle activity using flight Intercept traps serviced at 600 and 1800 hrs. Student-led group projects included investigations of Heliconia phytotemata communities, beetle inquilines of social insects, and vertical stratification at light traps. Individual projects ranged from soil washing to the ever popular human dung trap surveys. The students presented findings of their group and individual projects via Powerpoint presentations that had been completed only hours, or perhaps minutes, prior to their presentations in the best OTS tradition. Of course we had lectures and labs for learning identification skills. But, the integration of these classroom elements with field work that could be conducted only a few meters away made this course unique.
The students all left with new skills for collecting and identifying Coleoptera as well as an expanded understanding of tropical diversity and how this remarkable radiation of insects fits into it. Students and instructors shared their knowledge of plants, reptiles, birds, mammals, clown fish, music, ecological principals, administrative skills, forbearance, and Spanish. Thanks to a group dynamic of good natured collegiality, early returns indicate that a good time was had by all!
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Bycid at the blacklight
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