Insects and plants have been evolving together for over 100 million years. Plants bribe, reward, and sometimes cheat their insect partners, while insects pollinate, protect, cultivate, and sometimes steal from their plant partners. Often the beneficiary of a partnership is an opportunistic third party. Some relationships can be exploitative, in which insects “commandeer” the growth of a plant, forcing it to provide special structures to house the insect’s offspring. Other relationships are true partnerships, so interdependent that neither party can survive without the other. In this presentation we will explore some of the these dramas, featuring a cast of cacti and bees, orchids, ants, and angel trumpets.
If you missed the presentation you can click on the link below to view the Zoom recording of Jillian Cowles' presentation on January 25th!
Passcode: 3^ynR6ia
Photo © Jillian Cowles: Leaf cutter ant (Acromyrmex versicolor) gathering a Salvia flower, to use in its underground fungus garden. Leaf cutter ants have been farming far longer than humans (for at least 6 million years), growing fungi to eat.