I arrived to Curitiba, Parana on 06/09, on a Monday. This week I started working on my project, picking out the insects we would use for our tests. I put a lot of work into identifying the weapon-bearing bugs in the collections. Resources for ID are very scarce, specially for species that are not economically relevant. I changed my project slightly to be more of a comparison of morphology and biomechanical properties between insects that use their spines to fight vs those that have spines but do not use them to fight. This way, we will be able to include more species and look into something that nobody has before, which is exciting. We also had to do a lot of trouble-shooting with our camera equipment until we figured out how to efficiently use the Stack-shot camera that I brought over to the university.

During the weekend, I visited many touristic spots in the city, including some parks, which are what the city is most famous for. I visited Parque Tangua and Parque Barigui, both incredibly beautiful. I also visited the famous Opera de Arame, where many concerts happen in the city.