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Insects on HighAfter an exhaustive search for the creepy-crawlies living in a small patch of Panama's rain forest, researchers have discovered that the entire 6,000-hectare forest could harbor up to 25,000 arthropod species. Dawn Frame and Alexey Tishechkin, researchers with Project IBISCA-Panama—supported by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute—stand in a crane gondola so that they can capture insects feeding on flowers in the forest canopy.
Photograph courtesy Jürgen Schmidl, University of Erlangen

Pictures: Surveying Rain Forest Arthropods

A new survey of rain forest arthropods finds their diversity tied to plant diversity.

Published December 15, 2012