SCIENCE & ART IN THE MONTADO: PLANT-INSECT INTERACTIONS

Insects may act as agentes of protection, dispersal or fertilization for plants, just as plants provide food and nesting sites for them. In this exhibition, we illustrate a positive plant-insect interaction (mutualismo) and a negative plant-insect interaction (herbivory). The honeybee (Apis mellifera) aids reproduction in flowering plants, simultaneously receiving food for its troubles. On another note, the oak pinhole borer (Platypus cylindrus) resides and feeds in tunnels it constructs in the trunk of the cork oak tree (Quercus suber), which eventually causes death to the tree, as its sap circulation is cut off and the fungi the pinhole borer transports spreads.

If you are interested in hosting this exhibition, please contact us at info@ambios.pt.

30th of May – 2nd of June, 2019

Feira Internacional da Cortiça (XI edition), in Coruche, Portugal

25th of May, 2023 – present day

Cork Oak and Cork Observatory, in Coruche, Portugal