Posted October 4, 2021

We are entering the 10th month of our 5-year research project on flora, fauna, and ecosystems of the entire Reserva de la Biosfera Maya. We are focusing on wetlands, especially swamps, marshes, riversides, lake and lagoon sides. But since savannas are seasonally inundated, as are the tintal forests surrounding the open grassland savannas, we include both under the generic concept of “wetlands.”

We find giant snail shells in almost every savanna or cibal that we hike through (in Parque Nacional Yaxha, Nakum and Naranjo, during our August 2018-July 2019 project there). Now we are finding the same giant snail shells in savannas or cibal sawgrass areas elsewhere in the Reserva de la Biosfera Maya. Although our primary focus is plants and biodiverse ecosystems, we are aware that thousands of years ago what is today a savanna may have been a bit different and used for a variety of purposes.

I am noticing, for example, that most savannas and cibal areas of PNYNN and PNLT (Parque Nacional Laguna del Tigre) have a “ring of water” around them; this ring is sporadic pools of shallow water. Often the humidity is underground but often the water is visible above ground.

Is this “ring of water” a natural result of local geology or soil? We hope to coordinate research with soil scientists and geologists in the future. Our goal is to find the wetlands on aerial photos, hike to these areas, and use our decades of capability of high-resolution digital photography to record these areas. We provide all these photos to CONAP and to the park administrators. Drone photography is needed even more than panorama and macro photography that we already do. We will be publishing our first drone photos of wetlands of the southwest area of PNYNN later this week.

Posted September 14, 2021

On our September expedition we visited several rivers in El Golfete, Livingston, Izabal. Among them was the Río Higuerito, in which we got a great surprise: howler monkeys! We found and documented approximately 10 mantled howler monkeys, which were eating and moving among trees. One of them had her calf on her back. This species is in danger of extinction so we are happy to find more monkeys. We had already seen this species on our May expedition in the Río Dulce area.

In Guatemala there are two species of this primate, commonly called the saraguate or howler monkey. In the coastal areas of the Caribbean, you can find the mantled howler monkey (Alouatta palliate), which is characterized by being of black ceded hair and lighter hair stands out on the back, which is why it is called the golden-mantled howler monkey. While in the petenera jungles and Alta Verapaz area we find Alouatta pigra, which is characterized by being entirely black in color. Both species feed mainly on plants of the Moraceae family such as ficus spp, Anacardaceae, Fabaceaee among others. Because their diet depends on various species of trees, they are being greatly affected by the fragmentation of forests caused by human activities. Howler monkeys need to distribute themselves to find food and reproduce, which is why various investigations ensure that the fragmentation of forests has contributed to the decline of their populations.

Click to Enlarge Alouatta palliate at Rio Higuerito, El Golfete, Livingston. September, 2021. Photo by Alejandra Gutiérrez, FLAAR Mesoamerica.

Written by Vivian Hurtado & Roxana Leal
Identified Species by Victor Mendoza

Posted September 16, 2021

Mirador del Cañon Reserve is located in the Cañon de Río Dulce area, administered by FUNDAECO. In it we were able to document many insects, one of our favorites was a very curious wasp hive. Their colors are yellow with black and they belong to the Vespidae family

Within the Vespidae family are grouped the common wasps that are characterized by measuring between 4.5 - 25 mm (adults) and having colorations ranging from yellow to black or dark blue. Both sexes have developed antennae. Their antennae have 12 segments in females and 13 in males. In Guatemala, 90 species have been recorded that inhabit heights between 0 - 4000 meters above sea level. They build their nests with mud or vegetable fibers. (Yoshimoto, Cano and Orellana, 2015).

Taxonomy of Vespidae family.

Click to Enlarge Vespidae at Reserva Cañon de Rio Dulce, Livingston. September, 2021.Photo by Brandon Hidalgo, FLAAR Mesoamerica.

Written by Vivian Hurtado & Roxana Leal
Identified Species by Victor Mendoza

Posted August 11, 2021

On the shores of Playa Quehueche in the northern direction of the municipality of Livingston, it was very curious to find different species of Arthropods. During the tour we stopped to photograph two very interesting species, since they were perched on the sand of the beach. One of them was an elegant Swallowtail butterfly of the genus Papilio (Papilionidae) and an imposing Luber grasshopper or lobster with intense red wings of the genus Taeniopoda (Romaleidae).

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Pamilionidae family includes more than 600 species worldwide. A particular characteristic of the Papilio genus is that most of all of these butterflies feature tails on their hind wings which resemble the tails of swallow family of birds, hence their name. Swallowtails butterflies feed on flowers, and can often be found in mud or damp sand where they sip dissolved minerals and salts. They beat their wings rapidly when feeding on nectar, as a balancing technique.

On the other hand, Romelidae currently consists of 64 genera and 437 species. Most Romaleidae grasshoppers are Neotropical and they are characterized by presenting an apical spine on the external surface of the posterior tibiae. The Romaleids have the largest acridoid species and body biomass known in nature. They have varied sizes, shapes and colors, and can be winged, brachioptera or, rarely, apterous (without wings).

References:
www.butterfliesathome.com/swallowtail-butterflies.htm
www.scielo.org.co/pdf/rcen/v36n2/v36n2a27.pdf

Written by Vivian Hurtado & Roxana Leal
Identified Species by Victor Mendoza

Posted July 12, 2021

While we were walking along a path in the San Miguel La Palotada - El Zotz Biotope, we could hear the sound of the cicadas intensely, when we were about to leave in a tree we could observe the small insect on the trunk of a tree.

Cicadas are insects belonging to the superfamily Cicadoidea, they are well known for their shape and colors, you can easily see a skull, a bird and a butterfly, in the area of its head and thorax. They are also famous for being able to remain buried for up to 17 years (depending on the species); but, above all, they are very famous for their strident sounds. And why are Cicadas so noisy? They are able to produce these sounds because they possess the tymbal organ. The sound is produced only by males because is a mating call. According to Bauer, P. (n.d.) “each male cicada has a pair of these circular ridged membranes on the back and side surface of the first abdominal segment. Contraction of a tymbal muscle attached to the membrane causes it to bend, producing a clicking sound. The tymbal springs back when the muscle is relaxed. The frequency of the contractions of the tymbal muscle range from 120 to 480 times a second, which is fast enough to make it sound continuous to the human ear.”

What is most amazing of the noisy calling of Cicadas is that each species has its own distinctive song that only attracts females of its own kind. This allows several different species to coexist (Valdes, n.d.). So the next time you listen to Cicadas, pay attention because you won’t always listen to the same song twice.

Now that we are in Yaxha, Nakum and Naranjo National Park we were able to photograph them in droves. We spent more than ten minutes observing them and finding their best angles. You can find them on the Yaxha road to Nakum and at Grupo Maler, in the Yaxha area. Possibly in more places, you just have to listen and observe the logs.

Chicharra - Order: Hemiptera
Family: Cicadidae

Click to Enlarge Chicharra - Order: Hemiptera - Family: Cicadidae. Grupo Maler, Parque Nacional Yaxha. June 30, 2021. Photography: David Arrivillaga. Photo taken with a Sony A7R IV camera, Sony E 30mm F3.5 Macro lens, 1/125 sec, f/9, ISO 1600

Click to Enlarge Sony A7R IV camera,Sony E 30mm F3.5 Macro lens, 1/100 sec, f/10, ISO 1600

Written by Vivian Hurtado & Roxana Leal
Identified Species by Victor Mendoza

Posted July 12, 2021

During the May and June expeditions in Livingston, Izabal, we had the opportunity to find and photograph hummingbirds and their nests. The nests are incredible, it is located five feet from the ground and they are made perfectly with branches, lichen, moss and other materials found in nature. In each nest we have found between one and two eggs. Because of their size they are difficult to find.

Tapon Creek, Cerro San Gil and Río Dulce, Biotopo Chocón Machacas were the places where we have documented these birds. On some occasions there was the hummingbird and on others we only found the nest. You can find different species of hummingbirds when you visit Izabal, FUNDAECO has registered around 26 species in this department.

According to Alarcon (2011) some of the characteristics that you must take into account to identify hummingbirds in the field are: the size of the beak, its shape and color; the projections of the wings when the bird is perched; the shape, color and markings on the tail. Sometimes, the species can be very similar to each other so they can only be differentiated by the area where they live and it is advisable to use distribution maps, it also helps to identify the flowers they visit.

You can find more information in the “Hummingbirds of Mesoamerica” bibliography that we prepared for you.

Click to Enlarge Photographed by David Arrivillaga on April the 28th 2021, in Livingston Izabal, Guatemala with a Sony ILCE-7RM4 using the FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS lens. Settings: 1/250 f/9 ISO 2000.

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Photographed by Haniel López in Livingston, Izabal, Guatemala.