Male mosquitos are often hard at work pollinating (while their girlfriends are working hard to get blood to help raise their next generation). The snag is that there are many flies that mimic mosquitos (and scores of insects that mimic the colors of bees).
Here in the Mayan Ethnobotanical Research Garden of FLAAR, in Guatemala City, today the mosquito or mosquito-like flies have been busy all weekend and today (Monday) I was able to get a photo of these fast-moving characters. Actually female mosquitos are also after nectar when they don’t have to think about a fresh brood of baby buggies. There are two plants in Guatemala with the common name of jaboncillo; this is Phytolacca icosandra.
Nikon D5 camera, handheld (since the flowers are blowing in the wind and I have to move quickly from flower to flower), ISO 2000, speed 1/500th of a second (because there is no realistic way to focus on the mosquitos when they are in flight, so faster speed is not that much help). F/9 to get the depth of field. Lens: AF-S Micro NIKKOR 60mm f/2.8G ED. Would be better next time to use 100mm because if you get too close with the 60mm you scare away the pollinator. So the lack of 1:1 of the 100mm is not that much of a disadvantage.
Mosquito like pollinator insect jaboncillo Phytolacca icosandra FLAAR garden. Photo by Nicholas Hellmuth, FLAAR photo archive of flora and fauna of Mesoamerica.
Pollinators are important for all people around the world. So we at FLAAR (USA) and FLAAR Mesoamerica (Guatemala) are developing projects to assist local people to understand how many creatures are pollinators (much more than just bees).
That said, bees are still the most common and most noticed. So although lots of beetles, flies, butterflies, moths, bats and arboreal mammals such as mico leon (Potos flavus) are also pollinators, it is most realistic to start the message of Save the Bees, Butterflies and Bats.
Here are snapshots of a jaboncillo flower stack with two different bees or bee-like insects. As you will see with the next post, mosquitos (or mosquito-like flies) also visit the same flowers.
We noticed this several months ago on other flowers: many species of bees plus the mosquito-like insects were all happily seeking nectar on the same flowers at the same time of day. The plant’s botanical name is Phytolacca icosandra.
Since the flowers are blowing in the wind it’s tough to focus before the pollinator flies away, but here are the snapshots we were able to get. Nikon D5 camera, AF-S Micro NIKKOR 60mm f/2.8G ED lens. Photo by Nicholas Hellmuth, FLAAR.
Two species bee pollinators around FLAAR garden.
Photo by Nicholas Hellmuth, FLAAR photo archive of flora and fauna of Mesoamerica.
Bird are waiting for you at the Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo. I can remember seeing the antbirds enjoying their feast of insects trying to flee the invading army ants (the antbirds can hear the noise of thousands of insects hopping, jumping, flying to try to escape the massive army of ants). The antbirds simply have the bugs jump into their mouths.
This experience with antbirds comes from having lived at Yaxha for five annual seasons (1970-1974) while preserving the ecosystem by working to create a national park here. FLAAR also worked together with archaeologist Miguel Orrego to map the entire site of Yaxha (and update the Harvard map of Nakum).
In mid-April 2018 I returned to Yaxha to visit with the park administration team, to donate printed material for their museum and for schools, and to discuss how FLAAR could help the park’s program to raise awareness about protecting the fragile eco-systems of the seasonal Neotropical seasonal rain forests of this part of Mesoamerica.
Bright-colored birds were hopping from branch to branch in the trees over the hotel Ecolodge El Sombrero, adjacent to the entrance to the park. Inside the park, there were reports of the King Vulture, a gorgeous bird that is almost never visible elsewhere. The very knowledgeable park ranger (Teco) knew all the birds and precisely where to find them and what hour of the day.
If you sign up for a boat trip, then you can see and photograph all the waterbirds. So there is a lot to see at Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo in addition to the Mayan temple-pyramids, palaces, ball courts, and causeways.
Nikon D5 , 600mm Lens, f/4.0, 1/200, ISO 125
Megarynchus pitangua boat-billed flycatcher at Yaxha hotel Ecolodge El Sombrero
Bright-colored birds were hopping from branch to branch in the trees over the hotel Ecolodge El Sombrero, adjacent to the entrance to the park. Inside the park, there were reports of the King Vulture, a gorgeous bird that is almost never visible elsewhere. The very knowledgeable park ranger (Teco) knew all the birds and precisely where to find them and what hour of the day.
Last year I was surprised to learn that there is a wasp which makes honey, the “Mexican Honey Wasp.” Since this wasp is also present in Guatemala, we began looking for it.
Last week, while in a school in the remote mountains parallel to the Rio Cahabon, Guatemala (donating educational material to the teachers to utilize for the primary school Q’eqchi’ Mayan children), one of the teachers said that the wasps I was photographing were actually honey producers.
This is the second time this year that local people have said there were more than one kind of honey wasp. Snag is that other than the well known Mexican honey wasp there is not much on the Internet to allow us to easily identify the other species.
We are studying pollinators of the plants of Mesoamerica: bees, wasps, beetles, flies, and mammals. We have now photographed male mosquitos several times on the same flowers as bees and wasps in our FLAAR Mayan Ethnobotanical Research Garden around our office.
We look forward to contributing to knowledge of honey wasps that are native to Guatemala.
In this photo the lighting angle allows you to see the remains of the honey cells of an earlier nest. The earlier nest was probably knocked off months ago (and then the wasps returned to build their new nest to the right side of the remains of the destroyed nest).
These particular wasps are capable of stinging but the school teacher said they do not sting anywhere near as frequently as other species of wasps.
In other words, it is polite not to destroy their nests.
Considering how much of the Bocas del Polochic and Rio Polochic have been destroyed by runoff from strip mining, sugar cane plantations, and African palm tree plantations, it is notable that in the few areas which people have not yet destroyed, there are lots of howler monkeys, probably Alouatta pigra. This is the Guatemalan black howler monkey species.
We saw and heard lots of these photogenic howling monkeys in two locations on the west side of the Rio Polochic, February 11th, 2018.
When you are in a boat rocking from side to side because of the wind-created waves, and when the monkeys are either not in full view (covered by branches) or not with the sun illuminating them, the photos are not outstanding. But at least we got some snapshots.
Howler monkeys are mentioned in the Popol Vuh mythical stories but are rarely pictured in Classic Mayan art. 95% or more of the monkeys in Classic Lowland Mayan ceramic bowls, vases, and plates are the cute spider monkeys.
Canon 1Dx Mark II, 300mm prime, f/5.0, 1/1600, ISO 1600, 4:08 pm,
Feb. 11 2018, Bocas de Polochic River, Erick Flores, FLAAR.
There are crabs in salt water; there are crabs in fresh water. And there are crabs in the mangrove swamps parallel to the oceans (these swamps alternate between fresh water and salt water depending on the height of the tide and whether it is dry season or wet season).
In Guatemala there are two great areas to see and experience crabs: One is Manchon, a preservation area parallel to the Pacific Ocean managed by CONAP.
This is the Crab Rhizophora in Manchon Guamuchal, Retalhuleu, Guatemala.
Picture by Erick Flores.
The other area of diverse crab species is Canal de Chiquimulilla, from the Monterrico to Hawaii (Guatemalan Hawaii; not the islands of same name). The ones on the beach will really entertain you. These waterways are managed by CECON.
This specie of crab lives in the Canal of Chiquimulilla, Monterico - Santa Rosa, Guatemala.
Then there are giant, literally enormous crabs in other eco-systems. These were used as headdress decorations by the deities and kings of Bilbao, Cotzumalhuapa civilization. This is a non-Maya civilization of Guatemala.
So crabs are important to preserve, both the animals themselves, and their fragile eco-systems. Later this year we will be preparing photo-albums on crabs of Guatemala to help students, professors, environmentalists, and university and government plant and animal protection agencies.