Chilean Arthropod Biodiversity

Expedition, January 2007
By Dr. Elizabeth T. Arias & Professor Kipling Will
Oncol Park
Oncol is a privately-operated forest park in the heart of the Valdivian coast-- in fact, it's just north of the city of Valdivia. This chunk of land is owned by a forestry company, with a few patches of old-growth forest set aside for hiking, birdwatching, and other forms of ecotourism. The park is also close to the Pacific coast, so it's the perfect place for us to settle down for four or five days and collect. We'll spend a few days sifting soil and fogging trees in Oncol, and a day or two collecting at Curiñanco (a beautiful forest preserve overlooking the ocean). So far we haven't found any of our hoped-for weird scorpionflies, but there have been lots of great beetles and other arthropods! Our accommodations are also the best yet-- we're staying in a big, clean, multi-room cabin with a working fireplace, hot showers (!!!) and lots of room to set up our makeshift laboratory. Since we have a long stay and plenty of room to work, we can start sorting out our samples from the fogging. This is one of the most exciting parts of the expedition, like opening presents-- you never know what's going to be in the next sample, and there's always something weird and new. This year's "weirdo" is a leiodid-like beetle that nobody can identify... which is really saying something, given how many beetle experts we have on the team.