virtually all bacteria and protists are likely to remain a
mystery for a long time. K. Master's work on spittlebugs
in the genus Umbonia (see Sec. 4.2.3) is one of the few
studies of invertebrates in Monteverde to provide de-
tailed information on demography, sex ratio, and dis-
persal. Insects comprise the vast majority of species in
the region (Mawdsley and Stork 1995), and they play
crucial roles as pollinators, seed dispersers, herbivores,
predators, and prey (Wilson 1987). Even as this book
was in press, new invertebrate species were being dis-
covered at Monteverde, including an undescribed spe-
cies of army ant in a subfamily (Leptanilloidinae) pre-
viously known only from four scattered sites in South
America (J. Longino, pers. comm.).
The number of people able to identify plant spe-
cies is smaller than those who can identify vertebrates
or butterflies, so until recently we have known little
about the ecology and distribution of plants in Monte-
verde. In 1979, 850 plant species were listed for the
area. By 1990, the list had grown to 2000 species. The
total was more than 3000 species in 1998, including
166 species new to science (see Appendix 1). As with
other montane and lower montane forests in the neo-
tropics (Hamilton et al. 1994, Churchill et al. 1995),
Monteverde is especially rich in plant species. More
than 350 species of ferns and fern allies have been
identified in Monteverde, 10 times as many as are
found at Santa Rosa, Costa Rica. As for orchids, over
500 species are listed for the area; species-rich low-
land rain forest sites such as La Selva have fewer than
one-third as many orchid species as Monteverde, and
Santa Rosa has only 17 orchid species. Overall, plant
species richness in Monteverde is three times as great
as the entire lowland area of Guanacaste Province. For
elevations higher than 1200 m in Monteverde, there
are as many plant species as at La Selva. In fact, one-
third of Costa Rica's plant species occur in Monteverde,
and the region has as many families of epiphytic
plants (40) as all of Mexico. Special conservation
concerns are that many tree species are represented
by only one or a few individuals confined to small
areas, particularly dry ridgetops on the Pacific slope,
and that many species are endemic to the area. Ten
percent of the plant species of Monteverde are not
found outside of the Cordillera de Tilaran. Fungi have
hardly been studied in Monteverde, but more than 18
undescribed species have been found in the guts of
midges and blackflies alone (see Lichtwardt, "Gut
Fungi," pp. 83—85), implying that many more new
species will be discovered.
Not surprisingly, we know most about biology at
eye level, and about big organisms. Ecosystem-level
work has begun to bring the canopy down to earth (see
Chap. 9, Ecosystem Ecology). Far less is understood
about what happens underground, and almost noth-
ing is known about the biology of microbes in Monte-
verde. The vast majority of species, interactions, and
ecosystem processes in Monteverde are so poorly under-
stood that we can only estimate their current status and
imagine the conservation threats they face. By the
time we have gathered enough information to be able
to consider more sophisticated conservation biology
techniques such as population viability analysis or
metapopulation models (Wooton and Bell 1992, Haig
et al. 1993, Harrison 1994), it may be too late for some
species or unique associations. The description of con-
servation biology as a "crisis discipline" (Soule 1985)
seems especially apt for Monteverde, where so much
remains to be understood and so much is changing in a
short time (see Chap. 10 on conservation institutions).12.4. Conservation Problems in MonteverdeFor bird populations, many local conservation prob-
lems have largely abated in Monteverde. Direct threats
to populations, such as hunting and poaching, and
indirect threats, such as habitat alteration and fragmen-
tation, are of much less concern than they were prior
to the 1980s (see Young, "How Have Humans Affected
Bird Populations?", p. 433). Anyone who searched fruit-
lessly for Black Guans or Baird's Tapirs in the 1970s
can testify that their populations rebounded tremen-
dously after hunting in and around the Monteverde
Cloud Forest Preserve (MCFP) was stopped. Since
1978, when I first stood at La Ventana, looking out from
the Continental Divide toward the vast expanse of
Penas Blancas and beyond, the vista has been utterly
transformed. Deforestation has been halted and the
abandoned pastures of the Atlantic slope have rapidly
reverted to secondary forest. Ecotourism may introduce
new problems—the construction and use of recre-
ational trails, near which nesting success by birds may
be reduced (Miller et al. 1998), and the overuse of song
playbacks to attract birds—but such effects will remain
local and insubstantial compared to the conservation
benefits of ecotourism (Honey 1994; see Young, "How
Have Humans Affected Bird Populations?", p. 433).
The habitat changes on the Atlantic slope of Monte-
verde that favored the recovery of forest birds may
have had the opposite impact on open-habitat birds
and on reptiles that thrive along the edges of forest
clearings (see Chap. 5, Amphibians and Reptiles).
A consequence of residential expansion and rural
electrification is the proliferation of streetlights and
houselights, which causes two problems: concentra-
tions of insects around lights may make them vulner-
able to predation, and lights may interfere with the
orientation and navigation of insects that migrate alti-
tudinally in Monteverde.424 Conservation Biology