This coqui ate so many flying termites that he could not eat any more

Today, the Rio Abajo Forest, in Puerto Rico, we had the first really good rain of the rainy season.  More than an inch of rain fell on the forest.  I knew that this would stimulate the local termites into making their nuptial flight.  I turned off all the lights in the house and left only the light of the terrace on.   I sat by the light and waited.  Al 7:30 pm the first termites showed up.  This coqui, which was hiding in a bromeliad near my terrace, quickly jumped near the light and started feasting on the termites.  It ate so many of them that it got to the point that it could not eat any more.  I scooped him up with my finger to take a photo.  I was surprisingly docile considering that normally they don't allow themselves to be picked up.  It stayed on my finger for a few moments and then jumped on the camera.  I gently put him into a bromeliad leaf.

Anolis curvieri eating a tarantula

In January of 2013, I noticed that there was a large lizard eating, with some difficulty, a tarantula it had caught.  Apparently, this normally canopy dwelling animal, saw the tarantula in the ground and decided that it was just a too tempting a prey to pass up.  I was able to take a number of photos before it headed back up to the canopy.  The color of this particular animal is unusual as it is rare to see brown adult individuals, it is even rarer that this form is photographed.  The normal color for adults of this species is green, inmature individuals are brown.  Note the very long tail, more than twice as long as the whole body.

Anolis cristatellus, the camouflage fail of rorschach patterned headed lizard

Generally the local immature Anolis cristatellus are quite a wary bunch.  Given that pretty much every predator around would love to snack on them, including the adult A. cristatellus, their alert demeanor is understandable.   The color of these immature lizards resembles quite closely the leaf litter.  When standing on the forest floor these small lizards are well camouflaged and virtually invisible.  But when these lizards step away from their normal background the color pattern makes them quite conspicuous.  Normally it is not easy to get close to these lizards because they are prone to run away quickly if they become even slightly alarmed.   But this lizard seemed to feel so comfortable perching on the flowers of this Renanthera orchid that it showed an unexpected reluctance to move away.  This allowed me to get close enough to it to take several photos against a background that highlights its camouflage pattern.  The fact that the lizard lacks the tip of its tail means that even a good camouflage is no guarantee of survival in an environment full of hungry and sharp eyed predators.

A tale of manipulation, desire and grisly violent death on a Bulbophyllum flower

Do you want a hug?  Seem to say this crab spider
sitting on top of a Bulbophyllum flower lip.

You can see the spider sitting on the lip of the flower

When the spider would go away from the lip
 the fly would move to it.

The spider tries to hide from me.

A fly, not the fly in the previous photos, became dinner.

Yesterday I noticed that a Bulbophyllum inflorescence had become a focus of fly activity.  I decided to take a few photos but instead of the usual 18 to 55 mm zoom lens I use, I decided to try to see if I would be able to get some decent shots using my 100mm macro lens.  This macro lens is wonderful to take photos of still subjects such as orchid flowers but a real nightmare to use with subjects that keep moving even if they only move a few millimeters when you are focusing.

To my surprise the fly that was over one of the leaves of the orchid was strangely indifferent to my presence.  Yes, it would fly away if I got too close, only to return quickly if I retreated a bit.  I was able to get within a few inches of the fly and take the closest macro shots of a fly I have ever gotten.  I wondered whether the brain of the fly was somehow addled by the scent of the flower but what happened the next day disproved that theory.

In the morning, a fly, maybe the same one, was sitting on the flowers.  But there was a new visitor on the flowers.  It seems I was not the only one to notice that flies were being attracted to the flowers.  A small green crab spider had taken residence on one of the flowers.  The fly seemed aware of the presence of the spider as it would not go near it.  When I started taking photos of spider, it became agitated and ran away. It tried to hide in the base of the inflorescence.  I decided to leave the spider alone for a while.  The fly, when the spider had retreated, went all over the place where the spider had been.  I could see the spider was watching the fly, which was much larger than the spider, the fly activity was probably a very powerful lure to the spider to return to the flower.

Several times I came near the spider with the camera and every time the spider retreated to the perceived safety of the inflorescence.  But in the end, the spider decided to (metaphorically of course) grit its teeth and tolerate my presence.  The spider would sit on top of the lip of the orchid with its front legs outstretched, ready to grab any insect foolhardy enough to come close.  The theory that the fly was somehow befuddled by the orchid fragrance was disproved by the fierce way the fly would attack any other fly that would come close to the flowers.  I saw it confront aggressively and chase away, two other flies that alighted on the flowers.   In a perverse way, the strong allure that the flowers had for this fly was preventing them from being pollinated.  The large black fly had the wrong weight to properly activate the hinged mechanism of the orchid lip that ensured that the fly received the pollen.  The fly was fiercely preventing any fly of the appropriate size to affect pollination from sitting on the lip of the flowers.  So paradoxically even thought the flowers were surrounded by flies but not one flower had lost its pollinia or had been pollinated.

By the afternoon the flies had left and the spider remained sitting on the flower.  At 5:30 pm I went to take a look and discovered that the spider had been successful in catching a fly, just not the big flies that were around the flower in the morning.   I wonder if the spider will be there tomorrow, the flowers are getting close to senescence and will probably last only two or three more days.  Tomorrow I will again look to see if a new drama of manipulation, desire and grisly death plays itself out in the flowers.