OK, Time To Post More

I've been distracted over the past several weeks by going to Panama for 2.5 weeks, and then coming back and immediately starting summer school. But now I have the right focus. Panama was great, I collected populations of the livebearers Brachyrhaphis terrabensis, B. roseni and Poeciliopsis turrubarensis in the western provice of Chiriqui, from sea level up to 1265 m above sea level near Boquete. I hope to describe their gill parasites, and determine what distribution patterns might exist of parasites to the various hosts by species and elevation in the Rio Chiriqui basin. That's not Alabama, of course, and we're still working on projects with silver shiners, scarlet shiners, blotched chubs and snubnose darters. The big surprise of the season was finding female silver shiners in February with huge, well developed ovaries, much earlier than is typical of other local cyprinids. We still haven't done full maturation assessments or count ova, but it's different from what I would have expected. Here's a photo of one the best spots for B. terrabensis, a fairly large species found in highland streams that are clear and cool. This is the Rio Chiriquicitos, just downslope of the Reserva Forestal Fortuna where we stayed. This site is about 680 m above sea level.