optimism?
Hey, I have data.
Nothing feels better than data!
Of course, it turns out that my thrips may actually have made the jump from infested host-rose to Schefflera far faster than I'd initially imagined, and I may have to repeat the experiment with a higher resolution for data collection in the initial stages. Whatever! This is still great news for me because it means that at heart, the basic experimental design is functional and valid, and I might actually get some real results that I can interpret.
Of course, this is provided that the few chili thrips larvae I spotted on leaves aren't just statistical flukes, or that my assumptions about thrips-damage on host leaves turn out to be true... and then I still have to develop a host-damage profile for Schefflera, and to try and correlate plant damage levels to thrips population levels... but who cares? Right now, the project might be working, and that is really all that matters.