Bromeliad Biota

Some of the animals and insects that visit our bromeliads

This page is intended to show you some of the animals and insects that visit and live with our bromeliads. Most of these visitors do no harm and actually help the bromeliad by leaving behind nutrients that the bromeliad can feed on. Some of these critters come by because they are attracted to the pollen on the flowers, water in the bromeliad, or other insects that are on or in the plant; others may be just passing by, and the bromeliad is on their route. Some of these creatures may not qualify as 'Bromeliad biota' in the strictest sense because they do not depend solely on the bromeliad for their existence. Example: yes, 'Lagarta na folha' is on a bromeliad leaf, but there are not chew marks on the leaf -- so was the caterpillar just walking around (yes, many will do that especially when they are fully grown and looking for a pupation site) or does it eat bromeliad leaves? If so, of which bromeliad(s)?

The quote below, from Dr. J. Howard Frank, gives one explanation of Bromeliad Biota. If you are more interested in the science, please visit Dr. Frank's site listed below. If you want to look at pictures, you have come to the right place. If you have photos of your own that you would like to share, you can email them to webmaster@fcbs.org.

"A few hundred species of animals and plants are known to science to depend to a greater or lesser extent on bromeliads as a place in which to live, or as food. These few hundred species probably are a small fraction of those that exist, because these animals and plants, together called the bromeliad biota (the word biota means all living organisms, regardless of whether they are animals, plants, fungi, bacteria, or viruses), are yet poorly studied by biologists and there is an enormous amount of research left to do. It would not be surprising if there are more species of these organisms than there are of bromeliads."

Dr. J. Howard Frank
from his web site Bromeliad Biota

From Brazil. Photos by Oscar Ribeiro of Bromeliario Imperialis
Brazilian bee	Gafanhoto	Lagarta na folha	Lagarta na folha
Mosquito	Please do not disturb	Spider	Stumps*
*This one is called 'Stumps' because to an Aussie this means 'End of Cricket'
Mosca colorida	Abelha na flor	Cockroach	Inseto
Lagarto dourado	Lagarto dourado	Mosca	Pterosauro-imperialis!!!
Tadpole	Libélula	Libélula	Large Wasp - Marimbondo
Măe e filho	Hello!	Mosca grande	Besouro
Mosca colorida	Mosquito	Lagarto-na-pedra	Lagarto-na-pedra
Sun is for all	Arte natural	What is this?	Answer to what is this.
Besouro em Alcantarea imperialis	Bee in Alcantarea odorata	Newly born Mosquito	Visitante

From Florida. Photos by Michael & Karen Andreas
Ants	Native Florida Anole	Unknown I call it Stripes	Wasp
The snake and the frog	All I got was the foot!	Where did that frog go?	Sleeping dragonfly on T. flexuosa flower

From Florida.
Ribbon snake Photo by Jim Boynton	Zebra butterfly Photo by George Aldrich

From Pukekohe, New Zealand Photo by Alex Schanzer
Green bell frog

From Australia
Noisy Miner, native Australian bird pollinating flower of Aechmea 'Midnight Special' Photo by Kerry Booth Tate	Hummingbird Photo by G. Martinelli	Butterfly Photo by Wilson Fernandes	Hummingbird and Gravisia Photo by Joe Misiaszek

From Mexico
Hummingbird on Ananas Photo by Roberto Medina

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