標題: [自然百科] Life on Panama's Ochroma Tree after dark [打印本頁] 作者: netaccess 時間: 2011-5-3 08:52 AM 標題: Life on Panama's Ochroma Tree after dark
The balsa tree bursts into bloom at sunset during Panama’s dry season, feeding a kaleidoscope of species.
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A kinkajou's pollen-dusted cheek tells of a late-night nectar binge in an Ochroma, or balsa, tree.
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Two stingless bees drowned in a sugary pool; the woolly opossum drinks around them. On one tree, 50 to 60 flowers open nightly, each pumping out almost an ounce of nectar.
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A praying mantis on high alert waits for insects drawn through the night to collect Ochroma blossom pollen. Navigation lights glow in the background on the Panama Canal.
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White-faced capuchins, like this mother and baby, arrive daily at their favorite balsa trees just before nightfall.
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Africanized honeybees swarm toward an Ochroma flower just after sunset. The bees seek pollen; if they land by mistake in a blossom's pool of nectar, they will probably drown. Their ability to see in slightly lower light than native stingless bees gives the honeybees a competitive advantage at night. Earlier in the day the natives often block access to flowers.
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A greater spear-nosed bat hovers at a blossom. Bats were long considered the primary pollinators of Ochroma, but recent research suggests arboreal mammals do most of the work.
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An olingo, smaller cousin of the kinkajou (both are rain forest mammals related to raccoons), grasps a tattered flower. Kinkajous often shoo their kin away, but the quicker olingos often dart around in the trees, just out of reach, until flowers produce another batch of nectar.
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A hummingbird incubates her eggs in a nest built partly with fibers of the Ochroma fruit, which grows after pollinated flowers wither.
[attach]1357826[/attach] In pale moonlight near dawn, a tiny gecko looking for bugs to eat perches on a flower near the end of its one-night stand.作者: charmmymiao 時間: 2011-5-5 10:08 AM
so beautiful picture o作者: sunny5722 時間: 2011-5-8 07:34 PM
In pale moonlight near dawn, a tiny gecko looking for bugs to eat perches on a flower near the end of its one-night stand.