The eggs, larvae and beeswax contained in bee nests are a key food source for greater honeyguides (Indicator indicator). One of the ways these birds gain easy access to a nutritious meal is by leading other honey-coveting species to the nest and allowing them to do the hard work of breaking into it.
The human-honeyguide relationship is the best-documented of these partnerships. The wild honeyguides recruit people with a demanding call, indicating that they have found a bee nest. The honey-hunting humans reply with calls passed down through generations and follow the bird.
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When they reach the nest, the humans subdue the bees, such as with smoke, break into the nest and help themselves to the sugar-rich honey contained within. The Hadza people of Tanzania are one group known to work with honeyguides. It has been estimated that up to 10% their diet is acquired with the help of the birds.
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With the bees dispatched and the humans satisfied, the honeyguides are left to dine on the beeswax, eggs and larvae left behind.
8. The senita cactus and senita moth
When the sun sets on North America’s Sonoran Desert, the night-blooming flowers of senita cacti (Lophocereus schottii) are visited by tiny senita moths (Upiga virescens).
The female moths collect pollen on specialised abdominal scales and transfer it from flower to flower, pollinating cacti as she goes. The senita moth is the only nocturnal pollinator of this cactus and is responsible for 75-95% of its pollination. The rest is attributed to other insects that are active during the day.
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During her visits, the female moth will lay one egg on a flower petal. When the flower closes and the larva hatches, it will bore into the top of the developing fruit, spending about six days feeding on the seeds and fruit tissue.
The moth larvae don’t eat all the seeds or fruit – it’s been found that they only destroy about 21% of the developing fruit, which means the cactus can continue to prosper.
There are several similar mutualistic relationships, such as yuccas and yucca moths, figs and fig wasps, and Phyllanthaceae and Epicephala moths. Senita moths differ from these in that although the relationship is highly specialised, they are not the sole pollinator of their host plant, yet their relationship with the cactus clearly plays an important role in the cactus’s survival.
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