Re: [Aroid-l] Pistia pollination

From: <ju-bo at msn.com> on 2009.01.23 at 21:57:23(18962) Dear Christopher and All, Nice story, Christopher!  I wish I could learn more about the Brom. crab on the mountains of Trinidad! My good friend Marc, our aroid expert in France just posted a thought, suggesting that Pistia might be pollinated by water!   Interesting, and well worth pondering and investigating!   BUT---I`d think that the plants of this in Ted`s aquarium (water) would then be able to set seed!!!!!!   Ted 1---what think thee??   So---maybe there is a TINY midge or gnat ''out there'' in more tropical climes which ''does the dirty'' for Pistias benifit. Julius HTML +More From: crogers@ecoanalysts.com To: aroid-l@gizmoworks.com Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2009 08:53:32 -0800 Subject: Re: [Aroid-l] Pistia pollination Hiyer!   Dragonflies and damselflies are not pollinators. They arepredators. They would not be around your pond unless there was plenty to eat!They are quite voracious, with the aquatic larvae eating the stuff in the pondand the adults eating whatever emerges or flies by. They are death on mosquitolarvae, dayflying mosquitos, blackflies, gnats, midges and other flies. I haveeven watched them pluck spiders from the center of their webs.   One goofy thing is that in Jamaica and a few other CaribbeanIslands (Julius and I discussed this together long ago) there are freshwatercrabs that live in the water collected in bromeliad axils. There aredamselflies that only lay their eggs in these little aquariums. They have anelongated abdomen to reach way back in to the axils. If a crab is present, theywill grab the damselflies’ abdomen and reel it in. The crab will eat thedamselfly, and maybe cut it up into small pieces for its young crabs swimmingin the bromeliad tank. This still releases the damselfly’s eggs, which hatch,and the young damsels then are predators on the crab larvae. Go figure.   Happy days, Christopher     D.Christopher Rogers SeniorInvertebrate Ecologist/ Taxonomist ((,///////////=======<   EcoAnalysts, Inc. 1.530.756.4481 1.530. 383.4798 (cell) 1307 "L" Street Davis, CA 95616 USA   ŸInvertebrate Taxonomy ŸEndangered Species ŸEcological Studies ŸBioassessment ŸInvasive Species ŸPlankton ŸPhycology   Moscow,Idaho Ÿ Bozeman, Montana ŸDavis, California Ÿ Joplin, Missouri Selinsgrove,Pennsylvania Ÿ London, Ontario ecoanalysts.com -----Original Message----- From: aroid-l-bounces@gizmoworks.com [mailto:aroid-l-bounces@gizmoworks.com] OnBehalf Of Taylor Holzer Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2009 1:52 PM To: aroid-l@gizmoworks.com Subject: [Aroid-l] Pistia pollination   i think that dragonflies may play a part in pollinatingpistia, in my pond i had many dragonflies landing on tthe ones i had.   does anyone have a souce for pistia plants?             _______________________________________________ Aroid-L mailing list Aroid-L@www.gizmoworks.com http://www.gizmoworks.com/mailman/listinfo/aroid-l No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com Version: 8.0.176 / Virus Database: 270.10.12/1911 -Release Date: 1/23/2009 7:28 AM --_34da9421-809f-4924-b5bd-df973331bb2e_----==============77157920835930320=

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