Nathan Muchhala
Post-Doctoral Fellow
Department of Ecology and Evolution
University of Toronto
25 Harbord Street
Toronto, Ontario, M5S 3G5, Canada
n_muchhala@yahoo.com

Curriculum Vitae

Thomson Lab Website

Bat Pollination Page
Representative Publications

Armbruster, W.S. and N. Muchhala. 2008. Associations between floral specialization and species diversity: Cause, effect, or correlation? Evolutionary Ecology (In press).

Muchhala, N. 2007. Character displacement among bat-pollinated flowers of the genus Burmeistera: analysis of mechanism, process, and pattern.  Proceedings of the Royal Society B 274:2731-2737

Muchhala, N. 2006. Nectar bat stows huge tongue in rib cage. Nature 444:701-702.    
.
    Featured on
:
       - Nature Podcast (link) (mp3
       - Quirks & Quarks Radio Show (link) (mp3)

Muchhala, N. 2007.  Adaptive trade-off in corolla shape mediates specialization for flowers pollinated by bats and hummingbirds.  The American Naturalist 169(4):494-504. 

(Full publication list with PDFs)



Research Interests

    My research involves the ecology and evolution of plant-animal interactions, with a focus on the mutualism between plants and pollinators.  I am particularly interested in understanding the factors that affect specialization and switches in pollination systems.  I work in the tropics, primarily in cloud forests on the slopes of the Andes of Ecuador, and have focused on pollination by bats and hummingbirds.  In my fieldwork, I combine observational and experimental techniques.  My preferred approach involves controlled flight cage experiments with wild-caught bats and natural or artificial flowers.  I am also using empirical results from my fieldwork to develop mathematical models that can shed light on large-scale and long-term interactions.  For example, a current project tracks the evolution of floral traits over multiple generations for plant species competing for pollinators.  See below for further details and photos of my research.

Anoura geoffroyi pollinating Meriania sp. (Melastomataceae).  See this page for a  list of bat-pollinated flowers in Ecuadorian cloud forests,  with photos and videos of each.
Anoura fistulata, a newly described species of nectar bat (Muchhala et al. 2005).  Note its tubular lower lip and relatively wide uropatagium.
Anoura fistulata w/ tube Anoura fistulata drinking honey-water from a glass tube.  This bat has the longest tongue, relative to body length, of any mammal (Muchhala 2006a).  When not in use, it stores its tongue in its rib cage (illustration).  
Anoura fistulata visiting the highly specialized flower of Centropogon nigricans (Muchhala 2006a).  With  8.5-cm-long floral tubes, only A. fistulata can access this flower's nectar. Anoura fistulata w/ Centropogon nigricans
Set-up for a flight cage experiment.  Note the Anoura geoffroyi hovering in front, impatient to get things started so it can feed on some honey-water.
Anoura geoffroyi pollinating Burmeistera cylindrocarpa (Muchhala & Potts 2007). This flight cage experiment was designed to examine heterospecific and conspecific pollen transfer by bats when they are presented with flowers from different species of Burmeistera.
Burmeistera rubrosepala, the only known species in the genus that is exclusively hummingbird-pollinated (Muchhala 2006b).  Note the bright red coloration and relatively narrow corolla opening.
Adelomyia melanogenys visiting an artificial flower in a flight cage.  This experiment was designed to test the effects of corolla width on pollination by bats and hummingbirds (Muchhala 2007).
Anoura fistulata visiting a straw filled with honey-water.  The straw was used to determine the length that Anoura could project their tongues outside of their mouths.
Angelica Caiza and Juan Carlos Vizuete extracting an Anoura caudifer from a mist net.  Angelica and Juan helped with my fieldwork in the cloudforests of Ecuador.

eXTReMe Tracker