Honey Bees practice nectar robbing on flowers of Wigandia urens
Along many highways in the Highlands of Guatemala you can find lots of Wigandia urens plants. Their large leaves make them easy to find. Since our long-range project is to photograph as many native flowering plants of Guatemala, we stop along the highway when there is an easy and safe way to get the vehicle completely off the road.
Last week while we were photographing the purple-blue flowers of Wigandia urens between kilometer 60 and 75 of highway CA9 (Guatemala City towards Puerto Barrios) we found hundreds of two or more species of bees busy at work harvesting nectar from these flowers. But I estimate that more than 90% of the larger bees were working at the back of the flower. Thus I estimate they are nectar robbers: they get the sweet sugary nectar that they want by sneaking in the back of the flower; but don’t get pollen on their bodies (so, in theory, are not pollinators).
 |
 |
 |
Big bee on side or back of Wigandia urens flower. |
Big bee on side or back of Wigandia urens flower. |
Big bee in middle of front of Wigandia urens flower. |
  |
But similar bees several meters away were down in the front center of the yellow flowers of a different kind of plant. We hope to document whether the same species of bee is a pollinator on the yellow flower but a nectar thief on the Wigandia urens. |
We learn a lot about bees of Guatemala, especially stingless bees, from Scott Forsyth. He has helped local Mayan people on bee projects, especially in the Izabal area of Guatemala. We look forward to continue working together with him on a future project in the Municipio of Livingston (Rio Dulce, El Golfete, eastern end of Lake Izabal).
 |
 |
 |
Local stingless bee, buzzing around same Wigandia urens flowers as the larger bees. Since these are small, it was not as easy to keep track of where they landed on a flower (front or back). |
||
Photogenic creature posing for Senaida Ba
 |
This handsome creature was photographed by FLAAR Mesoamerica plant and animal scout Senaida Ba in her home in Chipemech, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala.
This is an insect, Fulgora laternaria, local name in Spanish is Machaca. Also called alligator bug or peanut-headed lanternfly!
It's creatures like this that make me inspired to continue studies of diverse kinds of insects in Guatemala, Central America.
Happy Thanksgiving from 2019
Posted November 28, 2019
 |
|
Drawing is by two of our team: university graphic design student Mellany and student intern Maria Josefina, copyright 2019 FLAAR. |
The ancient Maya of southern Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala had a turkey species totally different than the North American turkey: the turkey of Guatemala is the ocellated turkey (Meleagris ocellata).
We show here two felines getting ready to have their yummy turkey feast (there are five species of felines in Guatemala: jaguar, puma, jaguarundi, ocelot, and margay).
We hope you enjoy our thanksgiving day bird feast humor. Don’t worry, we do not eat wild ocellated turkeys; they are protected species.
Tailless whip SCORPIONS - These monstrous creatures are native to Guatemala
Posted November 27, 2019, the day before Thanksgiving
 |
 |
All the ones we find are inside the home/office. They come out at night. one came out yesterday so perhaps Thanksgiving is a time they come out? Or it may be coincidental.
Their bodies have pinchers (graspers) to impale, grab, slice, and dissect their prey. Yet to humans they are totally and completely tame. Since this tailless whip scorpion was on the steps, I had to move it quickly before someone walking down the steps would step on it by accident.
In the FLAAR Mesoamerica office we prefer no insecticide (except for mosquitos), no pesticides, and we prefer not to kill any spider nor tear down their cobwebs (because they help eat mosquitos without needing insecticide).
So I let the tailless whip scorpion out in the garden.
Amblypygi is the order; then there are families, and within each family genera, and then species. Since there are 155 species we will let Amblypygi specialists identify these from Guatemala City, altitude 1500 meters. These are not insects (no wings, for example).
Can unrecorded insects be found at Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo?
Insects, arachnids and all their relatives are definitely of interest to me. I like to seek, find, photograph, document, and publish as many insects, arachnids and their relatives as possible.
 |
 |
 |
 |
These creatures are a sample of what was photographed by FLAAR Mesoamerica between 2018 and 2019 in cooperation with the park administrators IDAEH and CONAP. These insects are already known. But we feel there is potential for discovering lots more. |
|||
Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo has potential for finding and photographing creatures not documented elsewhere in Peten because of the series of lakes, lagoons, rivers, swamps, and seasonally inundated ecosystems.
We have recently found, photographed, and published Tasiste palm for Yaxha, Nakum, and Naranjo sectors of the park. This palm is well known for Belize but is nowhere documented for Tikal in any list that we have seen published in the recent half century. Why in PNYNN and not at Tikal? Because the FLAAR Mesoamerica team has found ecosystems west of Yaxha and east of Nakum, habitats which do not exist at the Tikal park. And with the help of Naranjo sector team of Archaeologist Vilma Fialko, Arquitecto Raul Norega, plus Horacio Palacios, they took us to explore a savanna-cibal-jimbal ecosystem adjacent to Naranjo which is not present at Tikal. Plus, the corozera between the savanna and the Naranjo pyramids, temples, and palaces is also different than the corozera 4 km from Yaxha and the other corozera 4 km from Nakum.
So with these unique and biodiverse ecosystems, we feel there is potential to find insects not previously photographed or published for nearby Tikal nor elsewhere in Peten.
Potential for documenting unrecorded species of waterbirds at Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo
Most biological and ecological research in Peten (Guatemala) is undertaken at Parque Nacional Tikal or at El Mirador to the north. Research is popular at Tikal since you can reach it on a paved highway; there are three hotels to chose from, and there are roads throughout the center of the park.
We (FLAAR Mesoamerica) also recognize the pleasant aspects of Tikal (I was a student volunteer here for 12 months back in 1965). But my heart and soul are in the Yaxha and Nakum area. And, courtesy of Archaeologist Vilma Fialko and Arquitecto Raul Norega, plus Horacio Palacios, another key person who has hiked through all the remote areas of the Naranjo sector of Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo, I am now learning of the remarkable biodiversity of the ecosystems of the Naranjo sector of PNYNN.
Insects and arachnids and all their relatives are of definitely interest to me. We also seek, find, photograph, and document birds: park ranger Teco showed me king vultures soaring above the hills in the park. In 54 years in Mesoamerica I had never seen a king vulture in the wild (only in a zoo). But all the bird species have been carefully documented in Tikal area over recent half a century.
 |
 |
 |
Photo by Alejandra Gutierrez with a Canon 1D Mark II, Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM. Settings 300mm 1/8000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 4000. |
Photo by David Arrivillaga with a Nikon D5, Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 800mm f/5.6E FL ED VR. Settings: 800mm, 1/2500, f/6.3, ISO 2500. |
Photo by Nicholas Hellmuth with a Nikon D810, Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 800mm f/5.6E FL ED VR. Settings: 800mm, 1/1250 sec, f/13, ISO 4000. |
But Laguna Yaxha and Rio Ixtinto offer ecosystems not at Tikal, so this park (PNYNN) offers opportunities to find and photograph waterbirds (wading birds, shore birds, diving birds, and swimming birds) that have not yet been seen nor photographed with high-resolution digital cameras in adjacent Tikal.
Wasp nest in Arroyo Petexbatun area, Sayaxche, Peten, Guatemala
While working at Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo we found and photographed many different sizes and shapes of native Peten area wasp nests. While visiting friends at hotel Posada Caribe (on the shore of Arroyo Petexbatun, municipio of Sayaxche, Peten, Guatemala) they took us to visit other friends of theirs several kilometers hike into the hills. We noticed a wasp nest and I took some photos: Nikon D810, 200mm tele-macro lens.
As soon as we can identify the Genus species of these wasps we will update this post.
|
|
View of entire nest, several kilometers from Arroyo Petexbatun. |
View of how nest is attached to underside of banana leaf. |
|
|
Close-up to show the entrance to the nest. |
Another angle of view to see the entrance to the nest. |
We do not have any photographs of the inside since we do not destroy the nests; we leave them fully operational just the way we found them.
Wasps are among my favorite insects because of their biodiversity of size, nest architecture, and whether they are pollinators. For example, we hope to find more honey wasps (the ones in this photo are not honey wasps). Guatemala is a great place to study insects and arachnids.
