On the boat ride out from the Tambopata reserve, I was fortunate to witness a puma, stalking and then catapulting itself down a steep embankment towards a group of capybaras. The capybaras launched themselves into the water, and escaped death...this time. The cat surveilling its lost opportunity from the river bank looks emaciated, and perhaps slightly desperate. It is parasite-riddled with ticks and botflies and may have few other such opportunities.
Huddled around their mother, after the lunging attack by the puma, the capybaras are on full alert and ready to jump into the water at the first signs of danger, or at a signal from their mother. Two more are already in the water slightly further upstream. The cat is unlikely to return, and its chances are greatly diminished with such vigilant prey:
Honeydew is a distilled form of sugar, a currency of the natural world which can create a Game of Thrones like drama of unlikely alliances (mutualisms), depredations and parasitisms or simply a passing opportunity; like this moth collecting a droplet of honeydew from a fulgorid hopper.
Although the stable humidity and heat from the rainforest create year-round conditions suitable for breeding, the rainy season represents a particularly fruitful period. Literally, trees use the flooded forests as a means of seed dispersal, creating an abundance of food which can then be used to fuel reproduction. This is an opportunity seized not only by larger fauna, but by insects as well, like these mating fruit flies (Tephritidae):
Despite being relatively common, this is the first time I've ever seen tailless whip spiders mating. The elaborate courtship from beginning to end lasted 8hrs, essentially the entire night and included a wary approach, gentle tapping with its long antenniform legs, grappling (seen here) and the deposition of a spermatophylax (a sperm packet on a long crystalline stalk), and finally the guiding of the female by the male onto this sperm packet:
A flatid hopper disguised as a leaf lays a line of camouflaged eggs, dressed up to avoid predation or parasitization:
A tuberculated spiny orbweaver (Micrathena horrida) uses a swathing silk to cocoon her precious eggs:
An iridescent green ichneumon wasp oviposits into a tree trunk, drawn to sounds of larvae feeding inside the tree:
Thanks for looking and commenting,
Paul
