"Nobody’s willing to endure this masochism to figure this out."
July 12, 2019 5:24 AM   Subscribe

The Pollination Secrets of Florida’s Most Elusive Flower: He set up trail cameras he hoped would be triggered by a large moth but never were; he sat on ladders, infrared camera in hand, for hours on end waiting to press the shutter when the moths appeared, but they never did. Houlihan slept in the swamp, donating countless drops of blood to south Florida mosquitos. By the time Stone asked for his help, Houlihan was about to give up. “My first response was kind of like, ‘Good luck,’” he says. But he knew Stone and liked the idea of spending a few months climbing trees, so he agreed to give the project—and the mosquitos—one final summer.
posted by Stacey (5 comments total) 12 users marked this as a favorite
 
This is awesome! And those photos were really cool.
posted by leesh at 5:28 AM on July 12, 2019


(This one has some close-up photos of moths, so enter with care, folks who do not want to see bugs up close and personal. They're cute, though! For moths)
posted by Stacey at 5:34 AM on July 12, 2019 [2 favorites]


The photos are amazing in this article. Thanks for posting!
posted by xingcat at 5:42 AM on July 12, 2019 [1 favorite]


A five year journey to get a picture of insects pollinating a flower, I love it. God bless the obsessives.
posted by jeremias at 6:51 AM on July 12, 2019 [2 favorites]


That moth has gigantic eyes!
posted by Mouse Army at 11:06 AM on July 12, 2019


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