Agradecimentos: I thank Dan Doucette for the permission to use his outstanding photos of a kingfisher exploited by a tearfeeding moth, and additional information; Vitor O. Becker for the moth identification; André Victor Lucci Freitas for helping with the moth identification; Marlies Sazima for...

Agradecimentos: I thank Dan Doucette for the permission to use his outstanding photos of a kingfisher exploited by a tearfeeding moth, and additional information; Vitor O. Becker for the moth identification; André Victor Lucci Freitas for helping with the moth identification; Marlies Sazima for reading the final draft and loving support

Abstract: Bodily fluids and secretions of birds are fed upon by flying insects, the best-known example being the worldwide blood-feeding mosquitoes. Much less known are the Neotropical mucus-feeding stingless bees, and the Malagasy tear-feeding moths. Herein I illustrate and briefly comment on a...

Abstract: Bodily fluids and secretions of birds are fed upon by flying insects, the best-known example being the worldwide blood-feeding mosquitoes. Much less known are the Neotropical mucus-feeding stingless bees, and the Malagasy tear-feeding moths. Herein I illustrate and briefly comment on a night-roosting Ringed Kingfisher female whose tears were fed upon by an erebid moth in the Colombian Amazon. The moth perched on the bird’s neck and fed on the secretions in the anterior upper corner of the eye. Careful checking of night-roosting birds probably will disclose additional cases of Neotropical bird species sought by tear-feeding moths

Aberto