Gorongosa 2024-FULL-FINAL - Flipbook - Page 37
E NV I RO NM ENT
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GORONGOSA SP ECIAL
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
and the Ecosystem
Caterpillars are a remarkable bellwether of environmental changes
BY K ATHAR INE G AMM ON
PI OTR NA S KR EC KI
I
a leaf, chances are he’s going to tell you about the
state of the world.
This is what chemical ecologist Tara Massad has learned from collecting thousands of caterpillars in Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique. Her work is part
of the Gorongosa Map of Life, an ambitious project to build a multi-dimensional
map of interactions between species. Documenting which species make up the
park—and how they are related—is the path to conserve them.
F YOU GIVE A CATERPILLAR
“Understanding the ecosystem and all its elements
is a prerequisite to effective conservation that’s firmly
based in science,” says Piotr Naskrecki, associate director of the E.O. Wilson Lab at Gorongosa, which performs long-term research in biodiversity documentation, ecology, and conservation biology.
For years, Massad has scoured Gorongosa for caterpillars’ favorite munching leaves—bristly or smooth,
brightly colored or blending into their surroundings—
and popped them into bags with the voracious larva.
In the lab, scientists observe a classic life-cycle drama:
Plants get eaten by caterpillars, caterpillars get eaten
by parasitoids—insects whose larvae live as parasites
that kill their hosts—and parasitoids get eaten by
hyperparasitoids, parasites that feed on parasites. “It’s
a very intricate interaction, and often these interactions are incredibly species-specific,” says Naskrecki.
Documenting which species
make up the park—and how
they are related—is the path to
conserve them.
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