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Expedição "Moranguitto"
BSJ & Macabu 2019
Region
Northern Rio de Janeiro State
Duration
22-26 November 2019
Team Leader
A.B. Kury
Collecting Points
3 localities

Collecting Points

Ponto 01
22 Nov 2019
Casimiro de Abreu region • Morro de São João area
Team: AB Kury, MA Medrano & DR Pedroso
Ponto 02
24-25 Nov 2019
Conceição de Macabu region • São Tomé area
Team: AB Kury, MA Medrano & DR Pedroso
Ponto 03
26 Nov 2019
Rio Bonito region • Encanto da Serra area
Team: AB Kury, MA Medrano & DR Pedroso

Photo Gallery

Field team
The Moranguitto Task Force enters the field. Fully masked, fully caffeinated, mildly radioactive.
Base camp
Denis and Miguel at farm access road with traditional wooden gate, Rio Bonito region.
Habitat
Miguel during lunch stop at roadside eatery, Casimiro de Abreu region.
Specimen 1
Goniosoma venustum C.L. Koch, 1839, female, at point 02
Specimen 2
Mischonyx scaber (Kirby, 1819), male, at point 03
Collection work
Paecilaema melanacanthum (Ferreira, Pedroso & Kury, 2005), female, at point 02
Field work
Moranguitto™: the iconic strawberry soda from Macaé that inspired an expedition nickname — and tested the limits of human taste.
Habitat detail
A centipede resting on forest floor litter.
Final specimen
Close-up on mygalomorph chelicerae and fangs.

Expedition Notes

The expedition earned the playful nickname "Moranguitto", in honor of a garish pink soda discovered and repeatedly sampled by Denis Pedroso — a connoisseur of terrible local soft drinks on field trips. This particular beverage, a shocking blend of carbonated water, industrial-grade red dye, and overwhelming sweetness, became an inside joke among the team. The name stuck, capturing not only the sugary absurdity of the drink, but also the lighthearted spirit that carried us through the heat, mud, and forest trails of northern Rio de Janeiro.

The "Moranguitto" expedition was conducted in November 2019 across three distinct collecting points in northern Rio de Janeiro State. The expedition focused on surveying arachnid diversity in transitional forest areas between the coastal lowlands and interior highlands.

Led by A.B. Kury, the field team included M.A. Medrano and D.R. Pedroso, combining expertise in opilionid systematics and general arachnology. The expedition covered diverse microhabitats including forest leaf litter, rocky outcrops, and riparian zones.

The Casimiro de Abreu, Conceição de Macabu, and Rio Bonito regions provided excellent collecting opportunities, yielding significant material for ongoing taxonomic and phylogenetic studies. This expedition contributed valuable specimens to the AracnoLab collection and provided baseline data for future surveys in these understudied areas.