Hydrophilidae of Costa Rica
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Spotlight and Long-Term Study Sites:
Parque Nacional Tapanti

Catarata del Toro
Parque Nacional Tapanti
Tapanti National Park is a mix of virgin and secondary premontane cloud forest in the Talamanca mountins just south of Cartago. It has the distinction of being the rainiest place in Costa Rica, and likely all of Central America. At elevations up to 2000 meters and recieving up to 800 cm of rain a year, wet and cool weather is the norm.
Traditional collecting methods are almost useless in this park. There is very little open water, aside from some pools along the access road and the occasional forest depression. The rivers and streams and frequently and heavily flushed and this repeated scouring reduces the good hydrophilid habitat. So why does Tapanti have one of the highest levels of hydrophilid diversity in Costa Rica? The exceptionally wet habitat creates a seemingly endless array of microhabitats that are easy to over look. The water in the bases of bromeliads and bananas. The water in Heliconia inflorescences. The perennially wet rock faces next to the hundreds of waterfalls and seeps in the park. Micropools in depressions on the tops of boulders. The list is endless, and although I have collected in this park 4 times at 3 different times of the year, I always can find new things I had not encountered before. Consequently, I plan to continue efforts in this park to provide as complete as a snapshot as possible of the hydrophilid community in a wet cloud forest habitat.
Catarata del Toro
I accidentally came across this site in 2004 and found several new species living near the base of the falls, notably a large population of what is now described as Enochrus toro Short. A few rare species of Oocyclus can also be found here. Sitting at a similar elevation as Tapanti (although with lower rainfall and in a different mountain chain), the insects here are noticeably different, although there is some overlap between the two sites.

The management of a lodge at the top of the falls was kind enough to host me again in 2006, where I was able to re-collect some of the Enochrus and Oocyclus as well as some possible new things.
You can visit them here: www.catarata-del-toro.com
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