Monkey pot seed pod (Lecythis ampla) are relatives of Brazil Nuts. These were huge seed pods ... definitely would not want one of these to land on one's head!
Monkey Comb (Apeiba membranacea). These seed pods always make me think of sea urchins.
Some of the rainforest trees had cauliforous flowers and fruit.
A pair of Rufous Motmots were digging a burrow for a nest right next to the trail. The size of the hole was huge which seemed quite odd. They must be vulnerable to predaceous mammals and large snakes.
Keel-billed Toucan: Always nice to see and hear the toucans. Chestnut-mandible and Collared Aracari were also frequent in the forest.
Great Tinamou. These birds are normally very shy but some near the headquarters must be use to seeing people. Their songs are a gorgeous, rich flute-like whistle. The calls at night are one of my favourite sounds in the forest.
Some parts of the reserve support swamp forest. Years ago, I spent many nights along trails here looking for reptiles and amphibians.
One of the highlights to me in the swamp forest was seeing these clearwing Satyrinae. They are almost invisible when in flight in the dark understorey of the forest. This was particularly true of the first species below. The second species was slightly more obvious in flight but I usually could only see the red patches and nothing else.
Dulcedo polita. The butterly jumped with the preflash in photo 2 but this illustrates how clear the wings appear.
Rusted Clearwing Satyr (Cithaerias pireta)
A guide told us that Fer-de-Lance (Bothrops asper) were the most commonly encountered snake at La Selva. We only found this single individual while we were on a night walk in the swamp forest. It was waiting in an ambush position at the base of a fallen tree.
I found this Hyla rufitela by day on a small plant in the swamp forest.
I liked this trail marker, "trail without a name", in the swamp forest.
We visited "Sendero Cantarrana", the trail of the frog songs, on two nights. The trail passed through an open flooded area and was alive with frogs and songs at night.
Red-Eyed Tree-Frog (Agalychnis callidryas). These are one of the most attractive species of frogs in Costa Rica.
Yellow Blunt-headed Vine Snake (Imantodes inornatus) were frog eaters and they were numerous around the swamp of Sendero Cantarana.
Brown Forest Turtle (Rhinoclemmys annulata) were observed along Sendero Cantarana as well as along another trail in the reserve.
I spent a fair amount of time chasing butterflies. One of the best areas for butterfly photography was in the secondary plots in the southern portion of the reserve.
Nymphalidae
Malachite (Siproeta stelenes)
Little Banner (Nica flavilla)
Heliconiinae were a beautiful subfamily of the Nymphalids. One of the prettiest was the Crimson-patched Longwing (Heliconius erato) that was feeding from a Heliconia flower.
Not certain, but I think this to be an Ithomiinae, Polymnia Tigerwing (Mechanitis polymnia). Ithomiinae and Heliconiinae are both distasteful butterflies to predators. Many of these illustrate Muellerian mimicry where the distasteful species converge to the same pattern. It is interesting to see but makes the species and even sub-families hard to recognize.
Metalmarks (Rhiodininae) were abundant in Costa Rica. I saw many species but was only able to photograph a few.
Possibly Emesis lucinda. The outer wings were orange and the butterfly looked quite different in flight.
Thanks for sharing the photos and your adventure David! I love the shot of the Longwing feeding on the heliconia flower! And Dulcedo polita looks so amazing!! Thanks again for sharing such lovely photos.
Anthony
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Many of the the butterflies you shot are new to me!
Congrats on nailing the eyelash pit-viper!