Science Diary: Caterpillars – Process

music; ambience

“There’s three caterpillars over there; I want you to find them.”

So you’ve spent the last week searching through the rainforest for caterpillars, and you found some. Well, now what? Welcome to Pulse of the Planet’s Science Diaries, a glimpse of the world of science from the inside.

“So, what’s going to happen is, we’ve got all these caterpillars and now we’ve got to put them into the database.”

Grant Gentry is an ecologist at Samford University who works with Earthwatch volunteers in Costa Rica learning the secrets of caterpillars. Once you’ve found caterpillars in the field, the grim reality of science is that every caterpillar has to be accounted for.

“We’re going to take all these bags and we’re going to look through them, find the caterpillars. We’re going to figure out what the caterpillar is, that species, we’re going to figure out what the plant species is if we can. And then every single caterpillar’s going to get a unique number. We’re not going to tattoo it on the caterpillar; we’re just going to write it on the bag. There’s got to be a finder. Some of these guys, you wouldn’t think it, cause they’re in a bag. Hard to find. A finder, someone to put in the data. We’ll have maybe one or two behavior people and then maybe someone to take some photographs.
I’m gonna have you guys get a little behavioral information on these guys (off mike) Yeah, poke with a paint brush, try to elicit a behavioral response.”

“Ooh! He really fights!” (behavioral team in response to a caterpillar) “I’m running the thread over the caterpillar to see what his reaction will be. And then I make note of it. He’s trashing right now. He just flails about and he’s biting, so he tries to snap at whatever would be on him. So I’m actually mimicking maybe a predator.”

We’ll hear more about caterpillar research in future programs. Our latest project is a competition for third to sixth graders. Check out kidsciencechallenge.com.
Pulse of the Planet’s Science Diaries are made possible by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.

Science Diary: Caterpillars - Process

Finding caterpillars is hard enough. But science calls for cataloguing and evaluating them, too.
Air Date:11/04/2008
Scientist:
Transcript:


music; ambience

“There’s three caterpillars over there; I want you to find them.”

So you’ve spent the last week searching through the rainforest for caterpillars, and you found some. Well, now what? Welcome to Pulse of the Planet’s Science Diaries, a glimpse of the world of science from the inside.

“So, what’s going to happen is, we’ve got all these caterpillars and now we’ve got to put them into the database.”

Grant Gentry is an ecologist at Samford University who works with Earthwatch volunteers in Costa Rica learning the secrets of caterpillars. Once you’ve found caterpillars in the field, the grim reality of science is that every caterpillar has to be accounted for.

“We’re going to take all these bags and we’re going to look through them, find the caterpillars. We’re going to figure out what the caterpillar is, that species, we’re going to figure out what the plant species is if we can. And then every single caterpillar’s going to get a unique number. We’re not going to tattoo it on the caterpillar; we’re just going to write it on the bag. There’s got to be a finder. Some of these guys, you wouldn’t think it, cause they’re in a bag. Hard to find. A finder, someone to put in the data. We’ll have maybe one or two behavior people and then maybe someone to take some photographs.
I’m gonna have you guys get a little behavioral information on these guys (off mike) Yeah, poke with a paint brush, try to elicit a behavioral response.”

“Ooh! He really fights!” (behavioral team in response to a caterpillar) “I’m running the thread over the caterpillar to see what his reaction will be. And then I make note of it. He’s trashing right now. He just flails about and he’s biting, so he tries to snap at whatever would be on him. So I’m actually mimicking maybe a predator.”

We’ll hear more about caterpillar research in future programs. Our latest project is a competition for third to sixth graders. Check out kidsciencechallenge.com.
Pulse of the Planet’s Science Diaries are made possible by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.