While we love butterflies, bees, hummingbirds, and bats (here’s the proof),
some pollinators might feel a little sad that they are not better
known. But now is their moment of glory! We want to celebrate some of
these unique species and help broaden the pollination conversation.
Lizards, Geckos, and Skinks
In Tasmania, a snow skink only found there seems to have a visible
co-evolutionary relationship with Richea scoparia plants (shown at the
top of post). It is only after the skinks tear off part of the flower
and eat them that insects can access the parts of the flowers used for
pollination.
Mosquitoes
Not all mosquitoes feed on blood. Only the females feed on blood, and
only when they are producing eggs. Male mosquitoes feed exclusively on
plant nectar, sometimes serving as vectors for pollen transmission.
Cockroaches
Yes, cockroaches! Are you excited? While it’s admittedly a new area of
research, pollination relationships between cockroaches and plants were
discovered in three countries around the world, with the latest being in Chile.
A wingless cockroach (Catara rugosicollis) in Malaysia, one of the three
places (so far) where pollination relationships between cockroaches and
some plants are documented…
I had a biology teacher that told us this story about an octopus at an aquarium in Australia. The staff were concerned because their population of crustaceans kept disappearing. No bodies or anything. So they checked the video feed to find out what’s up.
Across from the the crustacean tank was a small octopus tank. This little fucker squeezed out of a tiny hole at the top of his tank, walk across the hall, and get into the crustacean tank. He would then hunt and eat. After he was done, he crawled back out and get back in his tank
Here’s the kicker: security guards patrolled the area. The staff realized that the octopus had memorized the security’s routine. It would escape and be back between the guards’ round.
My friend who worked at Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska had a similar story. Rare fish were disappearing, they suspected theft, and so set up a camera. An octopus was unlocking the top of its tank, walking across the suspended walkway, unlocking the other tank, eating his fill, re-locking the other tank, then re-locking its own tank.
I can’t remember what zoo this happened at, but there was another octopus somewhere who was unscrewing a water valve in the room where its tank was located and routinely flooding the place. The staffers had no idea what it was until they filmed the octopus caught in the act.
RELEASE THE KRAKEN!! But, sir, it has already released itself!
My dad worked in a lab and one of the rooms had a tank with an octopus in it. If they didn’t go play with the octopus he got bored and would climb out of his tank and steal the paperwork off the desks, and drag stuff into his tank to let the scientists know he was upset with them.
Four months, a heated, filtered, planted 5.5 tank, a lot of blood worms and regular water checks later:
i’m crying. he’s as beautiful as a summer’s night sky, when the sun is about to set over the horizon , and the last reflections of blue and pink dance off of fluffy white clouds.
Oh my goodness, even if he stayed ugly, this story warms my heart so much. Aww…
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 