Gasteroposting

lunch aka comida at Chamela field station on 16 Feb 2014

Lunch (= comida) at Chamela field station on 16 Feb 2014


Posting photographs of one’s food on the web (‘gastroposting’) has gone from bizarre, to hip, to mainstream enough for the Edmonton Journal.  Soon it will be deemed dull. Time for a new, edgy form of photographic expression – I suggest gasteroposting. A gasteropost includes a photograph of an ant and of the wound it created on the photographer.  During my 11 days at Chamela I have had sufficient encounters for two gasteroposts.



(1) Eciton sp. (army ants!)  Context: wearing open-toed sandals when walking on dry tropical rainforest litter at night. Review: intensely exciting at first sting, long-lasting throbbing, finishes with a dry brown necrotic patch.

army ant Eciton bivouac forming outside kitchen door Chamela field station 11 Feb 2014

A bivouac of Eciton outside the kitchen door at Chamela station.

army ant Eciton sting on toe Chamela field station 11 Feb 2014 sml

Three stings on the toe.

(2) Pseudomyrmex ferruginea. Context: looking for Bagheera kiplingi on bullhorn acacia. Review: spicy and enthusiastic stinger, deceptively calm post-sting hiatus, impressive puffiness of stung appendage subsequent day.

bullshorn acacia and Pseudomyrmex on rd from San Mateo beach 15 Feb 2014 A

Bullhorn acacia domatia and Pseudomyrmex

Pseudomyrmex stinging HPs knuckle from bullshorn acacia on rd from San Mateo beach 15 Feb 2014

The sting itself!

result of Pseudomyrmex sting 16 Feb 2014 A

Puffy knuckles.