NATURAL ENGAGEMENTS AND ECOLOGICAL AESTHETICS ...

that the ants can found a new colony there. This beetle is often then seen circling around the leaf-
cutter ant nests.
According to entomologists, many genera of rove beetles are specifically adapted to living
in close relation with ant colonies. They are often modified to resemble the worker ants of the
species they live with and they feed on their larvae and accumulated food reserves. Some also
secrete chemical substances that pacify their hosts and they are also known to groom and feed them
(Hogue 1993: 256-257). In some ways, then, Runa observations are in concordance with those of
the biologists regarding the ecological connections between this beetle and the leafcutters.
The Runa, like biologists, also recognize mutualistic relations among organisms. For
example, the Runa note that the blue crowned motmot (virdi uma tumali) eats the remains of
chunda palm fruits that are spilled to the ground by the blue crowned parrot (ushicu) as it feeds
on these.
The Runa do not differentiate categorically between the kinds of ecological relations, such
as the aforementioned, that would be acceptable to biologists, and the metaphoric ones I have
described earlier. That this is so can be seen most readily by the way they describe them. In both
cases, the Runa use the third person possessive pronoun paipa (his, hers, or its) to describe the
relationship.
The Runa use this term to describe many non-metaphoric ecological connections. For
example, the tree dzilan dundu of the genus Cecropia (possibly C. marginalis, Cecropiaceae) is
guarded by very aggressive ants called dzila añangu (Phachycondyla sp., Formicidae) whose
sting is extremely painful. These ants are said to live only in association with this tree. In addi-
tion, it is said that the casqued oropendola (buhya mangu) makes nests exclusively in this tree in
order to receive protection from these ants and from the spines that cover the petioles of the
leaves. Because of this ant’s role as a protector of both the tree and the birds that nest in it, the
Runa consider it to be the “mother” of this tree. This tree, it was remarked to me, “has many
mothers [i.e., ants], and its mothers can really cause pain” (“ashca mamayu, paipa mama yapa
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