Indwelling II,The Eusocial Life of Termite Nests with Pardalotes and Golden-shouldered Parrots (2020–21)  2021

Indwelling II – The Eusocial Life of Termite Nests with Pardalotes and Golden-shouldered Parrots.

 

Here are two striated pardalotes. I have placed them in the same mound as a Golden shouldered parrot which can be found nesting in termite mounds in the Cape York peninsular. This rare parrot has a symbiotic relationship with the larvae of a moth trysyntopa sp. which feeds on the faeces in the nest. There is no record of this moth breeding anywhere other than in the nests of this parrot. Poignantly, I learn that there were thousands of these moths cohabiting with the now extinct Paradise parrots, but now no longer.