½ Insects ½ Arachnids ½ Amphibians ½ Reptiles½

Peanut Head Fulgorid
Fulgora laternaria  

It is an outstanding “exotic” in the world of insects.  For many years it was erroneously named the Lantern Bug from a misconception that it glows in the dark.  Looking closely, you will see its real eye just behind the peanut or alligator-like protuberance.  This extended head is hollow and perhaps has the function of frightening would-be- predators away.

Leaf Cutters
Atta cephalotes

Cris-crossing the Tikal National Park are long, thin trails, two or three inches wide and worn down to bare earth through grass and the debris of the jungle floor.  If you follow these trails, eventually they disappear into a hole in the ground.  This is the home of the leaf-cutter, or Attini ant, called Zompopo by the locals. These ants are agriculturalists, and practically all their social activity is centered on their gardens.  The trails are worn bare by the constant travel of the working ants, which supply fresh, green plant cuttings for the garden.  After carrying the bits of vegetation (at distances that can be of up to several hundred yards) it is chewed to a pulp, fertilized with droppings from the ants, and planted along with sprinklings of special fungi.  The pulp produces more fungi.  It is a classic symbiotic relationship.

 The ants eat nothing but the fungi, which are totally dependent on the ants for their reproduction.  This is a beautiful example of how the forest depends on its own wholesomeness for its continued survival.   When a young queen leaves the colony to establish another, she carries a minute amount of the precious fungi in a special pouch under her head.  She plants and cultivates this fungi and she is totally on her own until her first batch of workers is born.  Whole trees can be stripped of their foliage in a single night by these incredible insects.

Its matching form and color with a leaf in its environment allows the Leaf Mantis to wait quietly, swaying gently in the breeze, for an unsuspecting insect to fly by, where it is quickly caught and devoured.  For its size (about two inches) the Mantis is one of the greatest hunters on earth.  Some species eat as much as four or five times their own weight in other insects each day.

Cicada
Fibicine spp.

In Tikal, as well as in other parts of the jungle, a loud, all-pervading buzzing hum will be heard.  The authors of this noise are the cicadas, a large, greenish, flying insect.  Like crickets, they generate this hum by rapidly vibrating and rubbing their wings together.  The Indians claim that cicadas can determine changes in air pressure and this causes them to signal a coming weather change.

Rhinoceros Beetle
Dynastes hercules

The Rhinoceros Beetle is a scarab whose overall length can reach five inches.  Despite his ferocious name and appearance, it is harmless and highly prized by collectors.  He has one horn; a black thorax and its wings are dark and yellowish wings.

Triceratops Beetle
Megasoma elephas

Do not get the two beetles mixed up!  The triceratops has 3 horns, has a velvety texture and may only be seen towards the end of the year...

This black spider’s abdomen has rusty orange hairs. They are fast and elegant walkers. They predate on insects and are predated themselves by the Pepsis Wasp.

Scorpion
Centruroides spp.

It belongs to the most primitive species of arachnids.  (Spiders belong to the same family)  It has a segmented body, at least six segments and a sharp sting.  The tail is carried arched up and prone forward, the sting always in a position to strike, paralyze and kill prey that it grasps by the front pincers.  The Indians say that if a person is stung before noon, the pain will ease by nightfall, allowing sleep.  If stung after noon, however, the person will get no rest that night and his or her toungue will become heavy.  The scorpions at Tikal are not dangerous, and no treatment is required.

This small, harmless spider weaves its web and, like many spiders waits in the center where, with his odd, brightly colored form, it resembles a chip of wood or perhaps a bit of fruit.  Its sharp spines make it an unpleasant fare for birds.  The radii, or foundation lines, of their webs are often ornamented with tufts of whitish silk-like material, possibly acting as further attraction for flying insects.  These spiders are very small; a larger one can reach approximately an inch in length.

Courtesy of The University of Florida

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