Species morphology better predicts plant-hummingbird interactions across elevations than nectar traits.

Species traits greatly influence interactions between plants and pollinators where floral nectar is the primary energy source fostering this mutualism. However, very little is known about how nectar traits mediate interactions in pollination networks compared with morphological traits. Here, we evaluated the role of morphological and nectar traits in shaping plant-hummingbird interaction networks along an elevation gradient.

When cheating turns into a stabilizing mechanism of plant-pollinator communities.

Mutualistic interactions, such as plant-mycorrhizal or plant-pollinator interactions, are widespread in ecological communities and frequently exploited by cheaters, species that profit from interactions without providing benefits in return. Cheating usually negatively affects the fitness of the individuals that are cheated on, but the effects of cheating at the community level remains poorly understood. Here, we describe 2 different kinds of cheating in mutualistic networks and use a generalized Lotka-Volterra model to show that they have very different consequences for the persistence of the community.

High levels of phenological asynchrony between specialized pollinators and plants with short flowering phases.

Species phenology plays a key role in determining mutualistic interactions, such as those between plants and pollinators. Notably, temporal synchrony shapes the patterns of interactions by influencing the probability of encounters between interacting partners; thus, species phenology greatly contributes to structuring ecological communities. In these communities, specialized species are expected to show a high level of synchrony with their partners; however, the relationship between species phenology and specialization remains largely unexplored.

Scorpions maintenance in captivity for venom extraction purposes in Costa Rica.

Approximately 2 000 scorpion species can be found around the world; although few species are considered “harmful” to human beings, a high number of scorpionism cases are reported all over the world. The elaboration of anti-scorpion sera requires the establishment of an animal collection maintained in captivity for venom extraction purposes. The Clodomiro Picado Institute (ICP, for its acronym in Spanish), poses a vast trajectory in manufacturing snakebite antivenoms, and starts a scorpion collection in 2005 for this purpose.