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Reports by FLAAR Mesoamerica
on Flora & Fauna of Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo
Peten, Guatemala, Central America
Photogenic yellow-wasp “paper” nest
Posted January 2, 2019
Bees are occasionally shown in Mayan art; wasps very rarely. My interest in looking for wasp nests is to find HONEY Wasps. Yes, wasps that make edible honey. These exist in Mexico, Guatemala, and elsewhere. But honey wasps are only one of scores of wasp species, so it will take time to find honey wasps at Yaxha. But in the meantime, here are photos of a wasp nest that has beautiful “bee hive” octagonal structure. Although I am not an entomologist, I believe these busy insects are not busy bees but rather are busy wasps.
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It is noteworthy that these waps build around leaves the same way as all the arboreal ant nests that we posted last week. |
Here is the other side of this nest. Again you can notice that it is built around leaves (and of course thus attached to the branch of this tree). |
Here you can see the precision design of the six-sided bee-like hive layer structure. Since this is a national park we do not dismantle the hive to study and photograph the interior. |
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I used a tall Gitzo tripod for these photos; this is why the photos are not blurry. I use a 30 to 40 year old original Arca-Swiss big ball tripod head (more recent ones are over-engineered and “self-lock” to the point they are unusable). Camera NIKON D810, lens Nikon AF-Micro-NIKKOR 200mm f/4D IF-ED Macro; settings: f/14, speed 1/60, ISO 1250. |
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We do not yet have an identification for the beautiful wasps here, but they are small and there are literally THOUSANDS of them busily working on their nest structure. This is a healthy-sized mature nest.
Since I seek and then photograph wasp nests all around Guatemala I am stung so often that to me this is simply part of normal discomfort. Most wasps do not sting unless you accidently bump into their nest. Or, if they see a camera with micro lens only a few inches away from their nest!
Archaeologist Jose Leonel Ziesse Altán, one of the administrators of Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum, kindly told me where to find this nest when I indicated that one of our goals for the December field trip was to find bee nests, wasp nests, and arboreal ant nests.
Arboreal ant nests at Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo
Posted December 27, 2018
During our November field trip to Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo (Peten, Guatemala) the park ranger who assists the FLAAR Mesoamerica team showed us three ant nests up in the two adjacent (but different species) of trees along Blom Sacbe (halfway to Grupo Maler). Since these nests looked like wasp nests my first estimate was that perhaps the ants had invaded and driven out the wasps?
Since these ant nests are up in trees it was not possible in November to get the camera high enough to photograph the nest straight-on. So I bought a new much taller Gitzo tripod (over 3 meters tall) and we bought a tall ladder to Yaxha for our late December field trip.
While at Yaxha this week before Christmas the park ranger (Teco) found several more nests: all had ants and I now believe these are original ant nests and not taken over from wasps. In about 50% of these ant nests stingless bees have built their hives inside the ant nest. There seems to be no overt animosity between these two insects in the nests, so we need to learn whether this is a symbiotic relationship, or some other phenomenon of nature.
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Would be great if an ant specialist could do a thesis or dissertation on all arboreal ant nests of Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo, and make a list of which trees these ants prefer, and which genus and species of ants these are. |
Many arboreal ant nests have a tube sticking out which is the entrance to a stingless bee honey hive. |
Another arboreal ant nest with a tube sticking out (middle, left) which is entrance to hive of stingless bees. |
The two arboreal ant nests at the left were found by Teco (Moises Daniel Perez Diaz), park ranger. Nicholas Hellmuth found the one in the Spanish Moss (in front of the IDAEH camp kitchen).
I took about 30 to 80 photographs of each ant nest. Maria Alejandra Gutierrez did macro-photos of several of the nests as well. We will publish all these photos in a FLAAR report on arboreal ant nests at Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo.
We also found independent bee hives and several very active and very fierce-stinging wasp nests this week. So lots to learn about at Yaxha.
Here is a friendly little Insect in front of my office window
Posted Dec. 13, 2018
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Photo by Nicholas Hellmuth, FLAAR, 12:07 pm, Nikon D810 camera, |
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Photo by Nicholas Hellmuth, FLAAR, 12:08 pm, Nikon D810 camera, |
This insect is only a few millimeters wide. It was hopping around leaves in front of me as I was photographing a poinsettia flower nearby.
We do not use pesticide nor insecticide in our FLAAR Mayan Ethnobotanical Research Garden. Insects are part of the natural eco-system.
Snowy egrets to see at Lake Yaxha, Peten, Guatemala
Posted Dec. 6, 2018
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Dozens of waterbirds are around Lake Yaxha and adjacent Rio Ixtinto for you to see, photograph, and experience. Here is one example, the Snowy Egret (no snow in Peten, Guatemala, December, January, and February are nice temperatures here in the Neotropical seasonal rain forest).
Egretta thula can be found along the south shore, west end, and north shore of Lake Yaxha, plus along the Rio Ixtinto (which starts alongside the island of Topoxte).
Boats are available from hotel Ecolodge El Sombrero or from the visitor’s center of Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo.
Butterflies & Flowers waiting for you to experience them at Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo
Posted Dec. 5, 2018
Pollinators are important to learn about because if they are exterminated by bulldozing or chopping down all the plants, or spraying pesticides and insecticide, then flowers will not be pollinated so no next generation flowers will appear.
So FLAAR Mesoamerica is making a list of all pollinators at Yaxha: bees, butterflies, bats, beetles, birds: plus even mammals (hint, the micoleon on the balsa flower).
Visit Yaxha to experience pollinators, and the beautiful flowers here. This particular flower is of the genus Cissus, possibly Cissus gossypifolia, a vine along the entire northern shore of Lake Yaxha and areas of the edges of Topoxte Island and Rio Ixtinto.
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Conference on Jaguars, Nov. 7, 2018, Guatemala
Posted Nov. 12, 2018
Great conference on Jaguars on Nov 7th, 2018, Guatemala City. Here is a hot link to samples of the presentation by Dr Nicholas.
DOWNLOAD PRESENTATION
Dr Hellmuth has lectured in Switzerland, Netherlands, UK, Germany, Dubai, Istanbul, Africa, China, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Canada, USA, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Costa Rica.
He is available to lecture on waterbirds, felines, Mayan archaeology (he discovered the tomb of a king of Tikal in 1965), ballcourt architecture and ballgame outfits, etc.
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Here are five of the speakers; Dr Nicholas is showing the front covers of 16 of the books his team have written for Q'eqchi' Mayan children in schools in the remote mountains of Guatemala. |
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Certificate of Presentation. |
Birds along lake shore to experience at Yaxha, Peten, Guatemala
Posted Nov. 2, 2018
The several kilometer wide Lake Yaxha (and adjacent Lake Sacnab) are home to many waterbirds. We show a sample here: the Green Heron, Butorides virescens, north shore of Lake Yaxha, Oct 31, 2018.
The Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo is open all year long; bird-watching guides are available, plus several bird-watching specialists organize field trips here (Yaxha has more diverse eco-systems so you see a lot of different flowers and birds). Hotel Ecolodge El Sombrero is where we stay every month (conveniently located at entrance to the park). Boats are available so you can experience and photograph the waterbirds.
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