What’s in a cubic foot of tropical forest?
3 Mar
Quite a lot, it turns out. National Geographic photographer David Liittschwager set out to find the answer when he travelled to the beautiful island of Moorea in French Polynesia.
Moorea in French Polynesia. Image via eatatmarks, Creative Commons
Liittschwager picked a spot on a Metrosiderous tree and took photographs of what he found. The result? Forty-nine arthropods, two reptiles, and seven plant and fungi species. Images of all the species are nicely displayed on the National Geographic website. Click here for the full gallery.
Browsing through them is great fun – and it’s also a pretty neat way to begin to appreciate the sheer diversity of life in even the smallest little niche of forest (a cubic foot, by the way, is the volume of a cube with sides of one foot [30.48cm] in length). Keep your eyes peeled for some of our favourites: the beautiful white plume moth, the “armor-plated” granulate millipede and that amazing Atylana plant hopper.
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