by Caleb D. McMahan (Feb 2011)
2011 was quite a busy year for fieldwork
in the Fish Section here at the LSU Museum of Natural Science. In 2011, LSUMNS
ichthyologists have done extensive fieldwork in Costa Rica, Panama, El
Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras. All were highly successful and productive
expeditions. While primarily interested in certain target species (e.g.
cichlids), we made collections of numerous other groups of fishes that will play
a huge role in helping to untangle the biogeographic history of the region.
Post-doctoral researchers Wilfredo
Matamoros, Matthew Davis, and I spent March 30th to April 14th
of 2011 collecting
fishes throughout Panama. We first flew into the capital, Panama City, rented a
vehicle and drove east to the Darien Province. As you travel towards the Darien
in Panama reaching the Río Bayano and Río Tuíra drainages, you begin to see a
fairly drastic transition in the diversity of fishes, with higher diversity of primarily South American groups (e.g.
armored catfishes, tetras). We then traveled to western Panama, as well as
Bocas del Toro. From May 29th – June 13th (2011), Wilfredo and I
traveled to El Salvador. The primary purpose of this trip was to fill in some
taxonomic gaps for cichlids that are part of ongoing morphological and
molecular systematic studies in the Chakrabarty lab. The trip was a huge success
and we were able to collect specimens of nearly every species of freshwater
fish in the country.
In addition to fieldwork, Wilfredo led a
small class on statistics for students at the University of El Salvador. I was
asked to lead a workshop with ichthyology students at the university on proper
museum techniques for preservation and storage of specimens of fishes. Parker
House (an undergraduate researcher in our lab finishing up his senior year)
joined Wilfredo and me from the 31st of July to August 17th for fieldwork in Nicaragua. After flying into the
capital of Managua, we boarded very small planes and flew to the jungles of La
Moskitia. In Puerto Cabezas we hired a couple of guides and left the coast by
boat. We went down the coast until reaching the mouth of the Río Prinzapolka. We
spent many days traveling throughout the lower reaches of this river, as well
as adjacent drainage, the Río Wawa. Many of the specimens we collected comprise
 |
| Paraneetroplus maculicauda (Nicaragua) |
the vast majority of available material
for fishes from this region. One of the target species for myself was Paraneetroplus
maculicauda, a widespread species of cichlid I am currently studying. The
trip was very productive and I was able to collect enough material for my
anatomical and genetic studies. After leaving La Moskitia we collected around
Managua and throughout the Nicaraguan Lakes, home to some endemic species of cichlids. Parker had to return to LSU
for the start of classes; however, Wilfredo and I flew from Nicaragua to Honduras
and spent August 17th to September 29th
collecting throughout the country. After
first arriving to Honduras, Wilfredo and I were invited to attend a meeting and
workshop of environmental officials for Honduras. Wilfredo was asked to discuss
some of his ecological work and to lead a statistical workshop using R. I was
asked to give a seminar on my research on the Mountain Mullet (Agnostomus
monticola) – a freshwater species common throughout Honduras. After the
meeting our first trip was to Copán and the Río Motagua drainage. This area is
geologically very important for understanding historical biogeography of biota
in this region. We were primarily after Theraps microphthalmus, a
riverine cichlid species part of a group I have been working on. From Copán we
traveled back to Tegucigalpa to collect different species of fishes. After
collecting in several localities throughout the Pacific drainages of Honduras, we
traveled to La Ceiba on the Caribbean coast. We spent quite a bit of time in
the Río Cangrejal collecting specimens of Theraps wesseli, a
species Wilfredo is actively studying. We also visited the town of Trujilo.
While Wilfredo went off looking for freshwater species
(cichlids, guppies), I spent two days working with local fishermen in Laguna
Guaimoreto. We collected numerous species (e.g. snook, catfishes, anchovies,
silversides, cichlids, guppies, stingrays).
This
was just a very brief summary of a busy – but highly successful – year of
fieldwork for LSUMNS ichthyologists! In total, we added roughly 100,000
new specimens to the LSUMNS Fish
Collection, and over 2,000 tissue samples to the Fish Tissue Collection. 2012
is off to a great start with Wilfredo taking another LSU undergraduate, Justin
Kutz, to Honduras for additional fieldwork for most of January. There is little
doubt the Fish Collection at the LSUMNS now has one of the better holdings of
specimens and associated tissues of neotropical fishes.