The onset of 2012 has been particularly busy for the Herbivore Beetle Evolution lab. A team of four of its members travelled to Nicaragua to engage in scientific and cooperation work funded both by the Fundación BBVA and the International Cooperation Programme of the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation. The Spanish and Nicaraguan team led by Jesús Gómez-Zurita aims at understanding the ecosystem structure and evolution in the highly endangered tropical dry forest, trying to raise awareness on this severe conservation priority. For four weeks the team has toured along the whole of the Pacific regions of Nicaragua sampling beetle and plant diversity in the few remnants of dry forest left and brought back to the lab hundreds of specimens for genetic analysis. In his visit to Nicaragua, J. Gómez-Zurita presented the IBE, its goals, achievements and potential, as well as the research carried out in his lab to the Nicaraguan Academy of Sciences (http://www.cienciasdenicaragua.org/) upon their kind invitation.