Monthly Meeting: Return to Mindo, Ecuador; by Shannon Bowley

Since Shannon's 2012 program about her first trip to the beautiful cloud forest of Mindo, Ecuador with wildlife photographer James Christensen, they have been back there twice. And taken lots more photos


tends to focus on spiders, but there are plenty of insects too, everything from cockroaches to butterflies. In the 2012 program, most of the photos were taken by partner James (He'll probably come along to the meeting and put in his 2 cents worth), but this time, Shannon says "I'll have plenty of my own! Sometimes being so short gives me a huge advantage when it comes to finding subjects... I see the undersides of leaves while others see the tops, I'm closer to the earth where things go a skittering, etc." She adds, "We found some really fascinating stuff – including a caterpillar that was a dead ringer for anoles and some mysterious, giant stream spiders."

Shannon is a long-time spider hobbyist. You can see nearly 200 of her spider videos on YouTube, under her pseudonym TheTyro (https://www.youtube.com/user/TheTyro/videos).

As always, all are welcome at our meetings, whether members or not. (Dues paying (http://crawford.tardigrade.net/Scarabs.html) members get a newsletter by postal mail).

RSVP if you want an email reminder. Otherwise, just show up!

Information about parking (http://www.burkemuseum.org/info#location)

Photo of how to get into the building for our meeting. (http://crawford.tardigrade.net/journal/gear/MuseumImage.jpg)