While many people in Panama were at home, passing time during the pandemic, five kids were out shooting a clay ball at trees with a slingshot. They wanted to give themselves a challenge, so they were targeting slender cecropia trees in particular. One of the kids was aiming for its broad, flat leaves, but hit the stem instead, leaving a clean, gaping hole, from one side to the other. William Wcislo, an entomologist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and father of two of the kids, had been tending to…
