The Small Things

 

Red-banded Alinote (Actinote dicaeus) and moth.
Cabanas San Isidro, Ecuador.

On our recent trip to Ecuador, we saw lots of big things; snow-capped volcanos, the world’s largest bird and trees that towered above the Amazon rainforest canopy.  These were all impressive, but many small things vied for our attention too. 

 

Bess Beetle (Passalidae).
Sacha Lodge, Ecuador. 

Some of these small things were insects.  They were everywhere we went and just about everywhere we looked.  A Bess Beetle (Passalidae) was crawling across the deck at one of the lodges before sunrise. These black beetles are about 1-2 inches long and are found across the Americas, Africa and Asia. 

 

Ferocious Polybia Wasps (Polybia rejecta) on nest.
Sacha Lodge, Ecuador. 

One day while canoeing on a creek in the Amazon basin we found a nest of Ferocious Polybia Wasps (Polybia rejecta) hanging from a tree.  They build a conical nest of paper that is about 2 feet long. Their name is strikingly descriptive.  These small wasps protect their nests from any approaching predator. Ferocious Polybia Wasps exhibit sting autonomy where, like Honeybees (Apis mellifera), the insect dies when it stings.  This aggressive behavior leads to some interesting interactions with other animals.  Some bird and ant species nest near the Ferocious Polybia Wasps to gain protection by being near the wasps. 

 

Bullet Ant (Paraponera clavata).
Sacha Lodge, Ecuador. 

We saw another aggressive insect in the Amazonian rainforest, the Bullet Ant.  Bullet Ants (Paraponera clavata) are dark reddish-black, about an inch long with a thin body and a large head that sports massive jaws.  These ants defend their nests by biting and injecting a neurotoxin that causes debilitating pain.  The pain is so great that people bitten by a Bullet Ant describe the experience as like being shot, thus the name. 

 

Polythore mutata.
Cabanas San Isidro, Ecuador. 

One day while hiking along a road in the rainforest we saw a black and white damselfly, Polythore mutata.  This beautiful damselfly is found only on the eastern slope of the Andes and nearby parts of the Amazon basin.  

Dobsonfly (Corydalus armatus) and moths.
Cabanas San Isidro, Ecuador.  

The cloud forest on the east slope of the Andes yielded a ferocious looking dobsonfly Corydalus armatus.  This large insect can grow to over 3 inches long.  They are dark brown with long wings and males have giant mandibles that give them such a dangerous look.  All the dobsonflies we saw were females with the smaller version of the jaws.

 

Leopard Moth (Pantherodes unciaria).
Cabanas San Isidro, Ecuador. 

Some of the lodges where we stayed had light traps.  It consisted of a white sheet with a light shining on it.  This attracted many insects at night and moths were abundant on the trap.  Moths are in the Order Lepidoptera that includes both moths and butterflies.  One of the most common moths at the cloud forest light trap was the Leopard moth (Pantherodes unciaria).  It is light brown with dark brown spots, each of which has a black dot in the middle. 

 

Cerodirphia mota.
Cabanas San Isidro, Ecuador. 

Amastus coccinator.
Cabanas San Isidro, Ecuador. 

Another common moth that showed up on the sheet was Cerodriphia mota.  This orange moth has black and white markings on the wings and a hairy body. They are only found on the eastern slope of the Andes.  Amastus coccinator is a large moth with orange wings and a red body with white stripes.  This is another species with a range limited to the Andes.

 

Amastus hyalina and Phaio acquiguttata.
Cabanas San Isidro, Ecuador. 

Two moths impressive moths at the light traps were Phaio acquiguttata and Amastus hyalina.  Both are in the Tiger Moth family.  Phaio acquiguttata has black wings with clear spots and a green, black and white thorax.  Its abdomen has black and yellow stripes and gives it the appearance of a wasp.  Amastus hyaline has a white body with yellow stripes and see-through wings. 

 

Red-banded Alinotes.
Cabanas San Isidro, Ecuador.

Orange-disked Alinote (Actinote stratonice).
Cabanas San Isidro, Ecuador. 

Butterflies, the other major group in the Lepidoptera, were abundant too.  Several Red-banded Altinotes (Actinote dicaeus) were drinking on a damp gravel road in the cloud forest.  This is a small black butterfly has two bright pink patches on each wing.  It was joined by a relative, the Orange-disked Altinote (Actinote stratonice).  It that also had black wings but with a bold gold patch on each wing.  Both these butterflies are found only in the northern Andes.  

 

Clearwing (Oleria sp.).
Cabanas San Isidro, Ecuador.

Another striking butterfly we found was a Clearwing (Oleria sp.) This small, delicate butterfly lacks the microscopic scales on their wings that give other butterflies their color, so its wings are clear.

Owl Butterfly (Caligo idomeneus).
Sacha Lodge, Ecuador.
Photo courtesy of Mr. Ron Zick. 

Owl Butterflies are among the largest Lepidoptera in the world.  We saw Caligo idomeneus with its 5 inch wingspan lives in the Amazon rainforest. They are dark, mottled brown and on the underside of the wings they have large eyespots that are probably used to startle predators. 

Apple Snail (Pomacea sp.) eggs .
Sacha Lodge, Ecuador. 

We found a pink mass of Apple Snail eggs (Pomacea sp.) on a plant stem a few inches above water level.  The snails were living in the lake at Sacha Lodge in the Amazon.  Pomacea is native to South America, Central America, Mexico and the southern tier of the United States.  

 

Fringed Tree Frog (Cruziohyla craspedopus) egg mass. 
Sacha Lodge, Ecuador. 

Fringed Tree Frogs mating. 
Sacha Lodge, Ecuador. 

We also found a jelly enclosed mass of Fringed Tree Frog  (Cruziohyla craspedopus) eggs on a pole that supports a tower leading to the top of a large Amazon rainforest tree.  The next day two frogs were mating while climbing the tower just above the eggs.  These brilliant frogs are green above, yellow and orange below.  Like all tree frogs, they have adhesive toe pads that allow them to climb vertical surfaces.  Female Fringed Leaf Frogs are larger than the males and when they mate, the male clasps onto the back of the female where he fertilizes eggs as they are laid.  

 

Gladiator Tree Frog (Boana sp.)
Sacha Lodge, Ecuador.

Another frog we saw in the Amazon was the Gladiator Tree Frog (Boana sp.).  This large tree frog was resting on the leaf of a water plant and seemed to be asleep.  The Gladiator Tree Frog was mottled brown on the back with yellow on the legs.

 

Proboscis Bats (Rhynchonycteris naso).
Rio Napo, Ecuador. 

Bats were flying around every night at our Amazon lodge.  One day while traveling on the Rio Napo we found a clutch of Proboscis Bats (Rhynchonycteris naso) roosting on the trunk of a large jungle tree.  The bats are only about 2 inches long and are mottled brown or gray.  They were resting head down on the tree waiting for the sun to go down. 

Our ten-day sojourn to Ecuador was educational, exciting and memorable. We saw giant trees, large mammals and the biggest bird in the world.  But the small things also captured our interest and were impressive in a subtle way.

 

Hummingbirds of Ecuador

 

Sparkling Violetear (Colibri coruscans).
Tambor Condor Lodge, Ecuador. 

Diane and I recently participated in a ten-day birding trip to Ecuador with a group of 8 friends. Our tour started in the capitol city Quito, went above the tree line in the Andes to the tundra-like paramo habitat.  It then descended the eastern slope of the Andes to the cloud forest, then montane rainforest and finally into the rainforest of the Amazon Basin.  

This trip was arranged by Holbrook Travel and our guide Freddy and driver Kevin worked tirelessly to show us the unique and varied birdlife of Ecuador.  One of the most impressive groups of birds we saw was the hummingbirds.  Hummingbirds are found only in the New World, from Patagonia in southern South America to southern Alaska. They are small, fast and often brilliantly colored.  Of the approximately 360 species of hummingbirds about one third are found in Ecuador. 

The paramo of Ecuador is a tropical grassland that occurs above tree line starting at about 10,000 feet.  The bird diversity there is relatively low, but several hummingbirds thrive there. 

Tyrian Metaltail (Metallura tyrianthina).
Tambor Condor Lodge, Ecuador. 

The tiny Tyrian Metaltail (Metallura tyrianthina) ranges from rainforest, up to the lower edges of the paramo.  This hummingbird has a short bill and in addition to inserting its beak into flowers to sip nectar they can pierce the base of long flowers and rob nectar without pollinating the plant. Tyrian Metaltails get their name from the metallic iridescence on their rumps and tails. 

 

Shining Sunbeam (Algaeactis cupripennis).
Tambor Condor Lodge, Ecuador. 

Shining Sunbeam.
Tambor Condor Lodge, Ecuador. 

The Shining Sunbeam (Aglaeactis cupripennis) is another small hummingbird of the lower reaches of the paramo and upper cloud forest.  These are rather dull by hummingbird standards, light brown and dark brown.  But when a male turns his back, his rump flashes violet, green and gold. 

 

Ecuadorean Hillstar (Oreotrichilius chimborazo).
Antisana National Park, Ecuador. 

Ecuadorean Hillstar.
Antisana National Park, Ecuador. 

Ecuadorean Hillstars (Oreotrochilius chimborazo) are found only at high altitude.  The males of this paramo specialist have a brilliant purple head, green back and a pure white breast marked by a vertical black line up the center.  Ecuadorean Hillstars, like all hummingbirds have a very high rate of metabolism and must constantly feed to survive.  The cold nighttime temperatures are a significant challenge to the Hillstars,  Their adaption to make it through the night is to lower their body temperature, heartrate and respiration rate to conserve energy until the sun rises.   

 

Giant Hummingbird (Patagona gigas).
Tambor Condor Lodge, Ecuador.

Giant Hummingbird.
Tambor Condor Lodge, Ecuador. 

Giant hummingbirds (Patagona gigas) are largest of the world’s hummingbirds. They are about the size of a Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinals) and their wingbeat is so slow the wings are easily seen in flight.     

Sparkling Violetear.
El Quetzal Bosque Protegido, Ecuador.

Lesser Violetear (Colibri cyanotus).
El Quetzal Bosque Protegido, Ecuador.

Going down in elevation we left the paramo and entered the cloud forest.  The trees were festooned with bromeliads and mosses as the clouds running into the mountains left some of their abundant moisture.  Sparkling Violetears (Colibri coruscans) and Lesser Violetears (Colibri cyanotus) are common in the cloud forest.  The males of both species are metallic green and blue with violet ear patches. 

Gorgeted Woodstar (Chaetocercus heliodor).
El Quetzal Bosque Protegido, Ecuador.

Immature Gorgeted Woodstar (Chaetocercus heliodor).
El Quetzal Bosque Protegido, Ecuador.

The Gorgeted Woodstar (Chaetocercus heliodor) is a tiny hummingbird just a little bigger than a bumblebee.  They are found only in the highland forest of Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador.  Males have a brilliant violet throat, and a green back.  The immature birds are green on the back with rich brown on the breast and rump.

 

Chestnut-breasted Coronet (Boissonneaua matthewsii).
Cabanas San Isidro, Ecuador. 

Chestnut-breasted Coronets fighting. 
El Quetzal Bosque Protegido, Ecuador. 

Chestnut-breasted Coronets (Boissonneaua matthewsii) are green on the back with a rich brown breast. Males and females have similar plumage.  They are found in the cloud forests of the northern Andes.  

  

Male Peruvian Racket-tail (Ocreatus peruanus).
El Quetzal Bosque Protegido, Ecuador. 

Female Peruvian Racket-tail.
El Quetzal Bosque Protegido, Ecuador. 

The Peruvian Racket-tail (Ocreatus peruanus) is a small hummingbird of the cloud forests of Ecuador and Peru.  Females have a green back and white breast with green spots.  Males are green overall, and their tails have two long feathers equal to the length of the body.  These extended feathers have rackets on the ends giving this bird its name.  Both males and females have orange, puffy feathers on their legs.  

 

Tawny-bellied Hermit (Phaethornis syrmatophorus).
El Quetzal Bosque Protegido, Ecuador.

At lower altitudes rainforest replaces cloud forest and a different set of hummingbirds appear. Tawny-bellied Hermits (Phaethornis syrmatophorus) are brown hummingbirds with white stripes on the head, a long dramatically decurved beak and a long white tail.  They range through the montane forests of Colombia, Peru and Ecuador.  The distinctive beak and tail make the Tawny-bellied Hermit unmistakable.     

Brown Violetear (Colibri delphinae).
WildSumaco Lodge, Ecuador.
Photo courtesy of Prof. William Garcia. 

Brown Violetears (Colibri delphinae) are the plain relatives of flashier Lesser and Sparkling Violetears.  They are indeed brown but when they turn their heads their brilliant violet ear patches shine in the sun.  

Male Black-throated Mango (Anthrocothorax nigricollis).
WildSumaco Lodge, Ecuador. 
Photo Courtesy of Dr. Richard Pockat. 

Female Black-throated Mango.
WildSumaco Lodge, Ecuador.
Photo Courtesy of Dr. Richard Pockat.

The Black-throated Mango (Anthracothorax nigricollis) is a large hummingbird found in lowland forests of northern South America. Male Black-throated Mangos are green on the back with a black throat edged in blue. Females are also green on the back, but their throat and breast are white with a black vertical line running from the chin all the way down to the belly. 

 

Gould's Jewelfront (Heliodoxa aurescens).
WildSumaco Lodge, Ecuador. 
Photo Courtesy of Prof. William Garcia.

Gould’s Jewelfront (Heliodoxa aurescens) is an amazingly beautiful hummingbird.  Both sexes are brilliant green with a glowing gold-orange patch on the breast.  It is found in low elevation rainforests across northern South America.

 

Glittering-throated Emerald (Chionomesa fimbriata) on nest.
Sacha Lodge, Ecuador. 

Glittering-throated Emerald nest.
Sacha Lodge, Ecuador.

The Glittering-throated Emerald (Chionomesa fimbriata) is found on forest edges, savannas and open woodlands across the Amazon basin.  We found one nesting in a small tree on the edge of an oxbow lake just off the Rio Napo.  This small hummingbird is green with a shining blue throat.  The nest was a cup of lichens and spider silk about an inch and a half across.  

Ecuador is a small country that would easily fit within the boundaries of Texas. Despite its size, Ecuador hosts about 1600 species of birds.  The United States has about 1200 birds.  The diversity of habitats created by the Andes and the tropical lowlands yield a stunning variety of life, including the hummingbirds described here.

Male Peruvian Racket-tail.
El Quetzal Bosque Protegido, Ecuador. 

The Rise of the Zombie Ants

 

A Chestnut Carpenter Ant (Camponotus castaneus)
infected with the Cordyceps fungus Ophiocordyceps unilateralis.
Rowan County, North Carolina. 

Picture if you will, a parasite invades the body, begins to replicate, and takes control of the brain and behavior of the host.  Then, after consuming its victim from inside, the parasite bursts out of the body, spreading spores to infect more unfortunate hosts.  This scenario from a science fiction horror film plays out on miniature scale right in our forests.  The parasite is a fungus called Cordyceps, and it infects insects including ants. 

After watching a David Attenborough nature documentary on the Cordyceps-ant interaction, a student at Catawba College in Salisbury, North Carolina discovered infected ants in the college’s Ecological Preserve.  Dr. Carmony Hartwig, a biologist at Catawba College, led me to a site where the fungus had been killing ants.  These areas are called graveyards and dead ants decorate the trees with their bodies.    

 

A Chestnut Carpenter Ant with its jaw's clamped
onto a limb and the first sign of O. unilateralis 
emerging from behind the head. 
Rowan County, North Carolina. 

An ant becomes infected when a Cordyceps spore attaches to its exoskeleton.  The fungus spore germinates and a cylinder of cells, a hypha grows out.  It secretes enzymes that dissolve a tiny hole in the ant’s exoskeleton, and the fungal filament enters the body. Inside the ant the fungus consumes the internal organs of the ant and grows around the brain.  The Cordyceps then releases chemicals that control the ant’s behavior.  The infected ants are now walking dead insects controlled by the fungus.  They are zombie ants.   

 

Chestnut Carpenter Ant with an actively growing
O. unilateralis stroma.
Rowan County, North Carolina. 

Chestnut Carpenter Ant with a stroma bearing
the spore producing perithecium.
Rowan County, North Carolina. 

The fungus directs the infected ant to crawl up a tree and out onto a thin branch.  When the ant reaches a height of 4-7 feet it stops crawling, and clamps its jaws in a death grip to the bottom of a stem.  Then a fungal stalk, the stroma, begins to grow from just behind the doomed ant’s head.  The stroma produces a reproductive structure, the perithecium, that makes spores that are released into the air.  The spores fall to the ground and can infect other ants.  By making the infected ants climb onto a tree branch. the Cordyceps spores can disperse longer distances than if the ant stayed on the forest floor. 

 

A healthy Chestnut Carpenter Ant.
Rowan County, North Carolina. 

The genus Cordyceps has recently undergone a revision and was split into three genera. The name Cordyceps is still used as a general term for these fungi but the ones I observed are probably Ophiocordyceps unilateralis. The infected ants with their jaws clamped to the tree branches are Camponotus castaneus, the Chestnut Carpenter Ant. 

There are more than 200 species off Ophiocordyceps and they can infect many species of insects and arachnids.  This drama of ant and fungus has been playing out for at least 99 million years.  Scientists in China recently found an ant preserved in amber with an Ophiocordyceps growing from it.  

A popular video game and subsequent TV series, The Last of Us is based on a Cordyceps infection that turns humans into zombies.  It is downright macabre seeing zombie ants in the trees a half mile from my house. 

A Cordyceps infected ant with a double stroma and two perithecia.
Rowan County, North Carolina.  

Skippers

Long-tailed Skipper (Urbanus proteus).  

This large skipper has blue hairs on the body and the hindwing

has the long extensions that gives this skipper it its name.

Waccamaw National Wildlife Refuge, South Carolina. 

 

Skippers are an unusual group of butterflies.  They are smaller than the more impressive Monarchs (Danaus plexippus) and Swallowtails (Papilio sp.).  Skippers have hairy bodies and many have short, triangular wings. They are usually subtly colored with brown predominant and can be difficult to identify.  However, they are a diverse group with about 275 species in North America and are abundant in many locations.  The name skipper comes from their rapid flight as they skip between nectar bearing flowers.  The antennae of skippers are unique in the butterfly world with a club on the end that bears a hook. This blog will examine a handful of the skippers found in North Carolina and South Carolina.   

Long-tailed Skipper.
Rowan County, North Carolina. 

The Common Checkered Skipper (Burnsius communis) is strikingly patterned 

with black-and-white checks on the wings.  The antennae of the 

this butterfly continues the color scheme with

alternating black-and-white bands. 

Rowan County, North Carolina. 

Silver-spotted Skipper (Epargyreus clarus).  

The underside of this skipper's wings have large gold and silver spots.  

Rowan County, North Carolina

Horace’s Duskywing (Erynnis horatius) is a medium-sized 

skipper with mottled brown wings.  The forewings have

 five white spots near their ends. 

Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.  

Horace's Duskywing.
Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. 

The Fiery Skipper (Hylephila phyleus) is a small, and quite common skipper.  

It is brown with bright orange on the wings.  

Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. 

Fiery Skippers mating.  

This slipper has small brown spots on the underside of their wings.

Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. 

Rowan County, North Carolina.

Delaware Skippers (Anatrytone logan) 

are bright orange with dark brown on the wings. 

Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.   

The Sachem (Atalopedes campestris) is yet another 

orange skipper with brown on the wings.  

Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. 

Dun Skippers (Euphyes vestris) are small and plain 

brown with white patches on the wings.

Rowan County, North Carolina. 

The Ocola Skipper (Panoquina ocola) is another brown skipper
but in this one the forewings extend past the hindwings.
Rowan County, North Carolina. 

Eufaula Skipper (Lerodea eufala) is still another 

small brown skipper with white spots on the wings.  

Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. 

The Zabulon Skipper (Lon zabulon)

 is one more small orange and brown skipper.

Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.  

While skipper butterflies can be difficult to identify, Americans of a certain age have no trouble identifying The Skipper, Alan Hale Jr.  He starred in Gilligan’s Island, perhaps the silliest sitcom of the sixties, wherein a group of castaways are stranded on a tropical island.  Alan Hale Jr. was a journeyman character actor and the son Alan Hale Sr., a journeyman character actor of a previous generation.  Alan Hale Jr’s Skipper was the straight man for the zany Gilligan and the glue that held the show together.  So, all hale the Skipper and all the little skippers flying around out there. 

Alan Hale Jr. The Skipper.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Hale_Jr.#/media/File:Alan_Hale_Jr._Gilligans_Island_1966.JPG

Thanks to Ron Clark for assistance in identifying skippers.