IN THE TECHNOLOGY An Evolutionary Embrace Nathan Muchhala

Many plants and animals get along with serious give-and-take. Think about Calliope hummingbird flowering plants. Unlike animals, they can’t move to find a mate. So, most Ecology & depend on insects, birds, to Biologist Evolutionary Biology carry their pollen from flower to flower. Without pollinators, flowering plants would struggle to reproduce. The pollinator’s reward? Tasty nectar! When a nuzzles inside a flower to sip its ▲ On a trip to Ecuador, nectar, pollen sticks to its fur. At the next Nectar bat Nathan stops to do flower that the bat visits, some of the one of the things he loves—sketching. pollen falls off. Presto—pollination! Remarkable relationships—with athan Muchhala always dreamed of Nathan surveyed the flowers that remarkable results N becoming a jungle explorer. As a young blossomed in the thick, humid forest. Think about bats and the flowers they boy, Nathan explored the woods behind At night, he caught different species of pollinate. The give-and-take can lock his Milwaukee, Wisconsin home. There nectar bats. Gradually, Nathan learned them in an evolutionary race. A flower he caught snakes and salamanders. about the ways flowers and bats might evolve a unique fragrance, color, In school, Nathan loved biology— influenced each other. Some flower or shape that attracts only a single Hawk moth especially evolution. “It was cool that species evolved shapes that allowed species of bat. The change increases the one theory can explain so much in them to transfer pollen to specific parts chances the bat will transfer pollen to nature,” Nathan says. In college, Nathan of a bat’s body. Why? He discovered it other flowers of the same species. For thought he would focus on reptiles or kept the bats from mixing their pollen example, with time, a trumpet-shaped amphibians. Then a friend invited him while flitting from flower to flower. flower might evolve an even longer tube. to Ecuador, where Nathan helped his That’s not such a batty idea! Nathan This forces nectar bats to linger longer at each blossom and collect more pollen. friend study bats in the Andean cloud also found a long bell-shaped flower— But meanwhile—by chance—one forests. Aha! Nathan could fulfill his and a bat with a suspiciously long ▲ Birds, bats, and insects evolved childhood dream. “That’s what pulled tongue. Did it pollinate the flower? species of bats evolve an even longer to do a better job slurping flower tongue . . . and the race is on! nectar—and transferring pollen. me in,” Nathan says. During the day, Had they evolved together? 26 27 IN THE FIELD TECHNOLOGY

Nathan did more research to confirm the bat really does pollinate the long-tubed flower. First, Nathan gently netted one of the bats. He then used tape to lift pollen off the bat’s fur. Using a microscope, he examined the pollen grains. Did they match pollen samples taken directly from the flower? Yes!

Oh, By the Way ▲ Yes, that’s the nectar bat’s INVENTION super long tongue reaching CONNECTION Nathan’s long-tongued bat turned for some nectar. Afterward out to be a new species, called the tongue curls back in to its storage space—the nectar A Tall Measure Anoura fistulata. The bat’s tongue bat’s ribcage! Imagine you’re a biologist. You stretches 1.5 times the length of want to find out the height of a its body! That’s twice the length without capturing and of any other nectar bat’s tongue. directly measuring it. You read So, it is the only bat able to how Nathan used a test tube of pollinate the long-tubed Late at night in Ecuador’s Andes “C’,” he whispers. “Closer, nectar to indirectly measure flower called Centropogon Mountains, Nathan Muchhala crouches closer.” Under the light of Nathan’s the length of a bat’s tongue. nigricans. (below with in a screened-in tent, deep in the damp headlamp, the bat darts, hovers, and You also know giraffes like to Anoura Fistulata). cloud forest. A captive bat flutters flicks its tongue deep into the slender nibble leaves that grow high up around Nathan’s hand where he holds tube. Success! Again and again, the on acacia trees. Discuss with a a glass tube filled with nectar. On an bat feeds. Slowly, the nectar level partner how you could apply that earlier expedition, Nathan spotted drops until the bat’s tongue can knowledge to indirectly measure an extraordinarily long-tubed flower. reach no deeper. Nathan measures the giraffe’s height, and use Nathan suspects the tube-lipped nectar the depth. It’s 8.5 centimeters Nathan’s work for inspiration. bat is its exclusive pollinator. Measuring (3.3 inches)—the exact length of its tongue could confirm his hypothesis. the flower!

28 29