How to Use This Book

This example, called a latitudinal diversity gradient, will

be discussed in much greater detail later in this book.

My goal will be to teach you how to spot patterns, to

observe, to see, and to understand a tropical ecosystem

as an ecologist does. I will describe in some cases how

ecologists have cleverly wrested information from

nature that has resulted in much greater understanding

of infrastructure of tropical ecosystems. As you move

through the chapters you will begin thinking like an

ecologist. Your focus will be less on putting a name on

a particular organism that you encounter and more

on understanding what it might be doing and what it

might be interacting with (plate B).

The book is written in a reader- friendly, colloquial

style that I have attempted to keep relatively free of

technical jargon and embedded annotations and

citations. A further- reading list is included for each

chapter; these are listed before the index. The entries

highlighted in boldface are those used directly in the

chapter, while the others enhance the lessons of the

chapter and take you deeper into the subject matter.

Unlike its two predecessors, the New Neotropical

Companion is prolifically illustrated with color

photographs throughout. That is huge! Ecology is a

visual science. Describing something in words or with

a few drawings goes only so far. Seeing it in a color

photograph goes so much further. With the kindness

of some of the best photographers I know, I have been

able to put together a visual tour of the Neotropics to

accompany my narrative. The photos tell the story too.

Obviously I have not been able to do more than offer a

representative sample of what you might see, but it’s a

darned good sample. Test it in the field.

My textbook, Tropical Ecology (Princeton University

Press, 2011), I will tell you unabashedly, may be of

interest if you seek a broader, more rigorous, and

technical college- level treatment of the subject matter.

But if you’re heading off to the New World tropics or

just want to sit down and read about this extraordinary

region of the world: Welcome to the New Neotropical

Companion.

Plate B. This is the Saffron Playboy (Xanthiris flaveolata). At first glance it appears to be a butterfly. But, no, it is a day- flying moth,

common to southern Amazonian rain forests. Wow, what coloring! It almost glows. That brightness suggests that the insect is

noxious to its potential predators, birds. It is likely exhibiting warning coloration (described in chapter 11). But no one has yet

shown it to be unpalatable to birds. The pattern of coloration suggests such a conclusion, based on numerous other examples.

It awaits further study. Ecologists identify wide- ranging patterns and, using the methods of science, explain why they might be

adaptive to the organisms. Oh, and note the tiny fly on its left wing. Who knows what that’s doing there? Photo by John Kricher.

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