Amazon Critters: Both Fearsome and Friendly
During our Cuyabeno Reserve visit in the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest, we made several jungle walks, both during the day and at night. Even during the day the light is limited on the jungle floor because of the dense vegetation and to take photos a flash is necessary. At night a whole new set of creatures emerged: tree frogs, bats, cone spiders, cicadas and various night birds. The cacophony was almost deafening. On the way back from one of the night walks we used flashlights from the dugout canoe to catch the eerie triangular red reflections of caiman eyes, finding the huge reptiles lurking in heavy brush at the edge of the river.
A giant caterpillar four or five inches long roams the forest floor (above right), while a colony of small caterpillars clusters on a tree trunk (left). This prickly black caterpillar (right) slowly sidles up a tiny branch.
Difficult to photograph, leaf cutter ants (left) are an amazing example of animal cooperation. This colony lived in a jungle clearing (rare in the natural world) about 12 feet across. The colony consisted of millions of ants, many of which foraged high in nearby trees, bringing back sections of leaf to the big nest.
Lower left: one of the most dangerous of all insects in the Amazon, this bullet ant not only has an extremely painful bite but also a potentially lethal sting (note: photo has been digitally altered to eliminate a confusing background).
Above: showy butterflies are everywhere in the Amazon. Left: these aggressive wasps are worth avoiding. Below: although this is a plant, not an insect, it still shows the remarkable specialization found so often in the rainforest. The plant's coloring is different when the plant is young to discourage leaf-eating insects.
Above: a sphinx moth several inches long rests under the thatch of one of the walkways at the Tapir Lodge. Right: a spider (about four inches long) in the same location feasts on a moth.
