Ants are crawling all over everything. There are the teeny black ones that smell like blue cheese. Azteca ants that live in the hollow stems of cecropia trees, which they protect with their large numbers and sharp stings. Army ant columns rushing along in foot-wide streams. Solitary bullet ants patrolling on leaves. The bullet ants are famous for their disabling stings – I know a number of scientists that have been nailed, and they describe the sensation of a bullet strike, followed by zinging pain for hours after.
Also seen: armadillos, frogs (though none of the brightly colored ones), walking sticks, resting butterflies, and the reflected light from the eyes of spiders.
The coolest thing: I was shining my light up into the trees (looking for one of our hanging bait traps) and saw a point of red light. First thought: a star. But of course the sky was covered by clouds. As I got closer, it seemed that the light was moving. Could it be the reflected eye of a monkey or opossum perched on a branch? But no, the light was moving slowly in midair, between the trees. Closer still, and I could see the body of a tree snake winding among the branches and leveraging itself between trees.
--DLC