The Nicoya peninsula in northwestern Costa Rica is one of the most beautiful places on the planet. This 75-mile sliver of land, just south of the Nicaraguan border, is covered with cattle pastures and tropical rain forests that stretch down to the crashing waves of the Pacific Ocean. The coastline is dotted with enclaves of expats who fill their time surfing, learning yoga and meditating on the beach.
For the locals, life is not so idyllic. They live in small, rural villages with limited access to basics such as electricity, linked by rough tracks that are dusty in the dry season and often impassable when it rains. The men earn a living by fishing and farming, or work as laborers or sabaneros (cowboys on huge cattle ranches), while the women cook on wood-burning stoves. Yet Nicoyans have a surprising claim to fame that is attracting the attention of scientists from around the world.
This very patient caiman leaves a bee and a butterfly sucking her tears for a quarter of an hour to Costa RicaAccording to researchers, the sodium content in tears carnivores attracts insects who need for their development.
This is an original trio Carlos de la Rosa and his team had the chance to observe on the banks of the Rio Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica: an alligator lounging on a tree trunk while a butterfly ( Dryas iulia) and a bee (Centris sp.) drink her tears.
“This is one of those moments of natural history that one day we hope to observe closely,” said Carlos de la Rose, director of La Selva Biological Station, specializing in the study of tropical areas. The biologist, students and photographers navigate the Puerto Viejo River in northeastern Costa Rica, when they see the caiman and two insects.
“I learned that you should always have a camera on yourself, because you never know what you will find by going to the office or dinner,” says the researcher, who was able to film the scene. But how to explain that insects are attracted by the tears of the crocodile? In a press release, Carlos de la Rosa says that this attitude is common among butterflies.
It has already observed this phenomenon in the Amazon, whether with alligators or turtles.According to scientists, the sodium is particularly important in the development of vegetarian animals, which must therefore manage to get them in their natural environment. That is why it is not uncommon butterflies sucking stagnant water rich in minerals in mud puddles.
The tears of carnivores, a good source of sodium The carnivorous diet of some animals, such as turtles and alligators, allow them to be good salt intake. This is why the butterflies come to drink their tears. However, Carlos de la Rosa said to have observed this behavior in bees only occasionally, in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
But by doing a simple image search on Google, the researcher realized that it is far from being the only one to have seen this kind of situation. Before him, other researchers have discovered a species of bee feeding Ecuadorian tears of a turtle.
In Thailand, some bees can even drink the tears of humans. Attracted by the salt content in the tear fluid, bees cacciae and furva cling quietly eyelids of people, sometimes without their knowledge. The story does not tell us if the caiman has enjoyed being used by both insects. It is in any case let him patiently for a quarter of an hour.
Carlos L de la Rosa 2014. Additional observations of lachryphagous butterflies and bees. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 12: 210–210; doi: 10.1890/14.WB.006
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