Insects visiting at night

Wood Cockroach (Family Ectobiidae), scarab beetle (Euphoria leucographa), and moth

Moth species

Moth and lacewing (Family Chrysopidae)

Scarab beetle (Euphoria leucographa) and moths.

Male and female Black Witch Moths (Ascalapha odorata) and another small moth

Moth, stinkbug (Family Pentatomoidea), and cockroach nymph

Moth with fairies (male mosquitoes?) around its antenna

From the photographs it is also pretty obvious what drew this amazing mixture of insects together. They were gathering to drink the frothy yellow “sap” that erupted at intervals along the liana.

This is by no means the first time something like this has been seen. Similar reports of insects gathering to collect frothy sap from various species of plants come from the United States ^[3],[4][5], Europe ^[6],[7],[8], and Asia.^[9]

So what’s going on here?

Barry Sullender

Instructor of Tropical Rainforest and Canopy Ecology for the Institute for Tropical Ecology and Conservation (ITEC).