Lamptoro tree is widely known among swiftlet farmer for its ability to draw birds to its canopy.
One of the special reason why this tree benefited BH owner is that it has the ability to produce flowers on a continuous basis.
Once new flowers blooms there will attract many pollinating insects that will come and collect those honey and pollen.
One of the most common insect that come to visit this tree are those small bees called "Kelulut" and they come in sizeable numbers.
Look at this video clip taken a few days back.
What happen in the evening is something that you will be surprised.
I discovered something unusual about this Lamptoro trees.
I was closely observing those Kelulut flying all over the tree.
In the early part of the day their main target was those newly opened flowers however when the day passed noon time they seems to prefer visiting another part of the lamptoro tree.
Their new focus was to the base of the leave's branch.
It looks like a circular pool (node) and they were a bit wet.
This node seems to be generating a kind of nectar or sap that attract those Kelulut.
If one leave branch have one node, there will be thousands of these nodes that excrete those saps and attract lots of these small insects to visit them regularly.
Have a good look at these pictures and video clip.
The tree young shoots seems to be a favourite spot for aphids.
Aphids are those small insects that feeds on tree saps.
They can multiply at a very high rate and sometime able to kill those young shoots.
In most cases they well like by those "kerangga" ants.
It seems that these aphids provide a kind of sugary water the moment those ants stroke them.
In returns the ants will give provide their care and protection to them.
There are instances where these ants will move the small size aphids to any young shoots that were formed. They will in fact set a kind of aphids farm to harvest those sugary liquid.
When there are lots of aphids there will be a lot of predators insects that feed on them.
These predators are much larger in size and usually aphids are good grubs to take home to feed the predator's young.
One of the most common aphids predators is the ladybirds. There are also those black coloured bees and many more.
When these aphids predators and those pollinating insects starts to visit the lamptoro tree top they will catch the attention of those swiftlet and others.
Have a look at these pictures and video clips to confirm my observation.
The observations were made on a young Lamptoro tree at Janda Baik, Pahang.
(A Nice Sized Aphid Eater)
(Red Colored insect)
(A black bee collecting aphids to take home)
If you are very observant you will discover more interesting things that we usually take for granted.
My wish is that this latest article answers our question why Lamptoro tree attract those swiftlet.
It is all due to its ability to attract more insects to visit its canopy as compared to other trees.
You might want to start planting them but be careful.
They spread very fast.
Once they take their position and start producing those fruits they might colonize you land.
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