2015 Panama Scenes and Other Wildlife

The Accommodation block has a high Foyer area at ground level, and we asked for a balcony room at the next level up. This brought us close to the tops of trees close to the hotel on the north side, which was ideal for moth recording.

Although a typical modern hotel, the jungle forest was always close to the areas, and a short trail over the hill and through the forest started just to the left of the far building. This led finally down to an enclosed Butterfly flight, and then out to one of the golf buggy tracks back to the hotel complex.

The part of the Short Trail from the hotel is a gravelled path mainly through small trees and shrubs with only a small amount of undergrowth. Further along the trees are more developed and the path wends down a hillside to the butterfly flight set in the jungle. There is bird life along the trail, and we had a brief glimpse of a red-headed black Woodpecker.

This strange little Butterfly was resting on a grass leaf by the side of the Short Trail close to the Hotel. Originally thought to be a small cryptic day-flying moth, it was quite lethargic, and caught easily. Closer inspection discovered that it was a small Butterfly, possibly of the Hesperidae family. It was returned to its rest area and it was coaxed out of the box and back onto a leaf. it was in no hurry, and stayed there quite contentedly, showing no sign of worry about its temporary captivity.

Not much flowering plants here, possibly because of the dryness, but this bright Passion Flower was quite obvious amongst the greenery left.

The central large glass windows were the Lounge area shown in the next picture. Our room was on the lowest guest level on the next floor above this, and was the balcony visible.

A huge panoramic window here allowed viewing of the lower reaches of the forest.

A clearer view of the Rainforest on the North side as seen from the Lounge Picture Window and also from our room balcony.

About 2 metres overall. Taken from the Radisson Summit Lounge area as it moved from one tree to another. From comments by the staff, it is a local resident, and could be seen most days somewhere in the trees nearby, often laying along a branch in the sun.

The track from the hotel down past the Butterfly Garden took us to a near Golf Course area, but across the top of the driving green you could enter the longer 1Km trail through wild Jungle. Coming back from a night walk here, a noise at the track side revealed an Armadillo rooting in amongst the dead leaves. As soon as the light touched it, it quickly disappeared up the side into the Jungle before I could get a camera set up.

A well prepared trail through this Jungle means that you cannot get lost. Unfortunately, the undergrowth was sparse, so insect life was rare.

At the far end of the trail, still a very bare surface, and the small bushes were not looking too promising as there was little browsing indications on the leaves. Apparently it was the end of the Dry Season here, so perhaps the wildlife had been dormant due to the dry conditions.

The previous prediction proved true, as it was difficult to find anything at night. After a 2 hour night search, including some of the Jungle borders of the adjacent Golf green, only a small 25mm Praying Mantis nymph was found on a tree trunk, and some Fireflies were in evidence.

Elateridae - Body Length: ~40mm. This medium sized Click Beetle has two bioluminescent spots on its thorax. In the dark of the long Jungle Trail Night Walk, it came to my attention as a small pair of brightly glowing green "eyes" apparently looking towards me from nearby on the ground. Rather eerie at the time, as it looked like wood spirits were watching me! Investigation proved it to be this 40mm long Beetle. A few came to our Moth Trap on the following nights.

From the comparative sizes, it suggests that these were a male (15mm) and a larger female (about 20mm). Furry Beetles!?

Elateridae, semiotinae - Bodylength: 35mm. A rather pretty Click Beetle which appeared in our Moth Trap on occasion.

Scarabaeidae, Dynastinae - Bodylength: 20mm. A quite common little beetle which came in most nights around the Moth Trap at our first hotel.