Desafío flora y fauna / Flora and fauna challenge.

Information on the guidelines to follow in the contest called Flora and fauna challenge can be accessed by clicking here. Dear @amestyj, @abneagro, @aqua.nano, @belkisa758, I invite you to participate in the contest.

For the contest, I selected hemiparasitic plants and stingless bees.

In my house's yard, there are several plants of the species Murraya paniculata, popularly known as Indian orange blossom or orange jasmine. It is a plant characterized by the intense fragrance of its flowers.

On the other hand, there are 2 plants whose fruits like to travel, and the vehicles they use are birds of various models and colors. These fruits practice skydiving, but before jumping, inside the vehicle they are stripped of their skin and pulp, leaving them as seeds covered with a sticky substance. When these fruits, now seeds, are ready to jump, the vehicles give the order for the seeds to approach the rear door (cloaca) and they are expelled.

The traveling fruits come from plants of the genera Phthirusa and Phoradendron. I would like to point out that some species of Phthirusa change their personality to the genus Passovia and sometimes the seeds are expelled through the front door of the vehicle (beak).

The seeds of both genera can fall anywhere after jumping. I have seen Phthirusa fruits that were unlucky enough to fall on the ground on fertile soil, because their root system is not adapted to seek nutrients in the ground. I have also seen seeds stripped of their skin and pulp on concrete trying to germinate, and stuck to an iron rod and aluminum antenna for televisions; in the latter 2 cases, it seems that they were expelled through the front door, because the fruits were stripped of their skin and pulp, not inside, but at the front door of the vehicles, which were parked momentarily on the rod and antenna to remove the seeds by rubbing (of the beak).

The seeds of both genera are lucky when they fall on plants, because their root system is adapted to penetrate woody aerial tissues. However, it is bad luck for the plants where they fall, because both plants (genera Phthirusa and Phoradendron) are hemiparasites, that is, they acquire resources by parasitizing another plant but also perform their own photosynthesis while on the plant.

When the seeds fall onto the plant, they adhere due to the sticky substance, then germinate, and during their development, a specialized organ called a haustorium is generated that penetrates the plant's bark until it reaches the conducting tissues to absorb nutrients.

In my house's yard, I have seen several Phthirusa living on the branches of an avocado tree (Persea americana), a climbing plant of the Mansoa genus, and on 3 Murraya paniculata plants. However, one of the Murraya paniculata plants is very unlucky, because the 2 hemiparasites live on it. In the following photographs, they can be seen on the plant.

Generally, hemiparasitic plants do not kill plants immediately, but they weaken them, reduce their growth, and make them more vulnerable to drought and pests.

My house has 2 floors, and we live on the top floor. On the walls of the yard, there are many nests of stingless bees of the genera Scaptotrigona and Nannotrigona. For example, in the following photograph of one of the walls, 5 nests marked with red arrows can be seen, and I know that the one on the right is from bees of the genus Nannotrigona, and where I point on the lower floor with the yellow arrow is 1 of the genus Scaptotrigona.

Bees of the genus Nannotrigona build their nests in natural or urban environments, in tree cavities, cracks in buildings, and even in the ground, while those of the genus Scaptotrigona build theirs in hollows in living tree trunks, cracks in rocks, and block walls.

The 5 nests extend from the bathroom to the kitchen at the bottom of the upper floor and were built by taking advantage of the hollows and narrow spaces or cracks between the clay blocks, as the walls were not covered with concrete.

Now that the location of the nests and the kitchen has been established, I will mention a situation that we encounter every day in the kitchen. It turns out that my wife gets up early in the morning to make breakfast and then goes to work. While she is in the kitchen, as dawn breaks, the bees come out of their nests, and even though the kitchen window is a sliding window and she keeps it closed, the bees enter the kitchen through the two panes of glass because they are attracted to the light from the kitchen lamp (positive phototaxis). They do this even when it is a little lighter outside.

This situation means that bees stick to her hair, fall onto the food she is preparing, or into the boiling water she is using to make coffee. The number of bees that enter the kitchen varies; some days there are few and other days there are many. If the window is opened because there is more light outside, the bees do not leave; they continue to fly around the light bulb, and if the light bulb is turned off, they do not leave either, but form clusters in various parts of the lamp.

Previously, on many occasions, after the ordeal of cooking, because we didn't leave the window open, many bees were left dying or dead on the floor because they had consumed their energy reserves and because of the constant collision with the light bulb or the heat from the light bulb that weakened them physically, a situation that was exploited by the various species of ants, that have invaded us, leaving none on the floor or counter tops.

Over time, we discovered that by leaving the window open and the light off, when it is bright outside, brighter than in the kitchen, the bees in the clusters fly out the window, and in this way we practically take away the ants' breakfast.