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By Ronal Magnum Castañeda Tabares, Journalist at UdeA Communications Office 

Insects represent the most numerous groups of animals on Earth, followed by fungi, which belong to the fungi kingdom. Both groups have existed on the planet for roughly 250 to 450 million years and play essential roles in sustaining life. In 2024, researchers from UdeA released the study Guide to Insects and Fungi: Porce II and Porce III Hydroelectric Plants. They designed it for readers interested in nature and biodiversity, with a special focus on the communities of Amalfi, Anorí, Gómez Plata, Guadalupe, and Yolombó, encouraging them to explore and value the natural richness surrounding their dams.

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Flower flies of the genus Toxomerus belong to the order Diptera, which includes flies, mosquitoes, and midges. These insects feature a single pair of wings, a pair of halteres for balance, and a specialized mouthpart adapted for suction. Their diet varies widely and may include plant matter, wood, fungi, nectar, carrion, feces, and even the blood of mammals or amphibians. Due to their sensitivity to environmental changes, they serve as reliable bioindicators of ecosystem health. Photo: Carolina Henao Sepúlveda. 

Did you know that most flowering plants rely on pollinators—especially insects—for reproduction and that fungi drive the breakdown of organic matter like leaves and carrion, transforming it into nutrients that enrich the soil? Without these vital organisms, the cycle of life would unravel. Though small and often unnoticed, these silent engineers perform essential work: they pollinate, decompose, recycle, link ecosystems, and fuel regeneration across the natural world. 

Given the crucial role insects and fungi play in ecosystems, researchers developed the Guide to Insects and Fungi for the Porce II and Porce III Hydroelectric Plants (2024) recently published  under the BIO Agreement, a collaboration between Empresas Públicas de Medellín (EPM) and the Universidad de Antioquia, carried out between 2021 and 2024. 

You may be interested in: Learn about the Herbarium’s publications 

Felipe Cardona, director of the UdeA Herbarium and leader of the agreement for the university, stated that they proposed to EPM a study of insects and fungi to complement earlier research on mammals, birds, fish, amphibians, and reptiles in the Porce River canyon. This research focuses on the reservoir’s area of influence in northeastern Antioquia, under the management of the energy company. 

The Guide presents 47 insect taxa and 40 fungi taxa, offering just a glimpse of the rich diversity, intricate forms, vibrant colors, and complex structures that characterize these ecosystems. 

BIO Agreement: a partnership for ecosystem conservation in antioquia 

The BIO Agreement, a strategic collaboration between the Universidad de Antioquia and Empresas Públicas de Medellín (EPM), has supported over 20 research projects focused on conserving biodiversity and managing water resources in areas affected by energy developments such as Porce II, Porce III, Guadalupe, and Riogrande. This alliance has driven environmental monitoring, the discovery and documentation of new species, and community education efforts, all aimed at enabling informed decisions to safeguard both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. 

Within the Porce II and Porce III regions, this partnership produced the Insects and Fungi Guide—a groundbreaking study designed to explore and understand the complex dynamics of lesser-known biological groups in tropical environments. 

Insects: Pollinators, Decomposers, and Regulators 

While scientists estimate that about 1.5 million insect species exist worldwide, many believe the accurate number could be far distinguished, as this vast group remains largely unexplored. Insects form the largest and most diverse group in the animal kingdom. They play vital roles in pollinating plants, breaking down organic matter, and controlling populations of other organisms, making them essential to sustaining healthy ecosystems. 

Acknowledging their crucial role, two researchers from the Universidad de Antioquia’s Entomology Group (GEUA), under the guidance of Professor Martha Wolff Echeverri, carried out fieldwork across several areas of Porce II and Porce III, targeting three different habitat types: 

“We classified the ecosystems into three types: highly disturbed, semi-disturbed, and conserved. In each area, we deployed targeted trap systems to collect important bioindicator groups that reveal the condition of the forests,” said Carolina Henao Sepúlveda, biologist, entomologist, and mycologist at GEUA. 

“‘Heavily disturbed’ land refers to grasslands—areas significantly altered by human activity, mostly uniform, with scattered shrubs and no tree canopy, so sunlight reaches the ground directly. ‘Semi-disturbed’ land contains secondary vegetation, including shrubs and forests in recovery. Lastly, ‘conserved’ land describes mature forests dominated by tall, mostly native trees, featuring abundant leaf litter and a variety of microhabitats,” explained biologist Juliana Torres Toro, who also took part in the sampling. 

Thunderhead butterflies (Hamadryas amphinome) are one of 20 species found across the Americas, with six species recorded in Colombia. Their name comes from the distinctive territorial sound males make by rapidly flapping their wings. They belong to the order Lepidoptera, which includes butterflies and moths. As caterpillars, in their immature stage, they feed on leaves. Adult butterflies primarily feed on nectar, playing a crucial role as pollinators, and they also extract minerals and salts from the droppings of birds, mammals, and reptiles. Photo: Carolina Henao Sepúlveda. 

For sampling, they employed three types of traps: the Van Someren Rydon trap, baited with fruit or carrion to catch flying flies; the Malaise trap, a fine-mesh tent set temporarily at key forest locations to capture large numbers of flying insects; and pitfall traps baited with liver or rotten fish to collect ground-dwelling insects—one of the most effective methods for sampling surface soil populations. In unbaited traps—Malaise traps among them—they focused on selecting representative insects, including certain butterflies and pollinating flies. 

The Guide to Insects and Fungi presents 47 cards showcasing a small but valuable sample of insect diversity, emphasizing the rich variety and intricate forms, colors, and structures found among them. It covers insects from the order Lepidoptera, which includes butterflies and moths; Mantodea, the praying mantises; Odonata, encompassing dragonflies, and damselflies; Orthoptera, including crickets, grasshoppers, and locusts; and Phasmatodea, known locally as María Palitos or stick insects. 

“The diversity recorded in such a brief sampling period was remarkable. We gathered more than 16,000 individuals from 17 insect orders, which accounts for just over half of the insect orders present in Colombia,” explained researcher Torres Toro. 

Fungi, the great decomposers 

The cup mushroom, commonly known as Cookeina sulcipes, belongs to the Ascomycota division within the fungi kingdom. It features a leathery, elastic texture and typically grows on decaying wood. This species ranges from 0.5 to 3 cm in diameter, with a smooth, light orange interior and a deep orange exterior covered with scattered hairs. While Colombia has not recognized it as edible, Mexico considers it edible. 

Insects dominate the air and land, while fungi govern the subsoil as the unseen architects of the forest. Researchers from the Fungal Taxonomy and Ecology Group (TEHO) at the Universidad de Antioquia’s Biology Institute visited permanent flora plots located in municipalities surrounding the reservoirs. These plots, protected conservation zones managed by the energy company, help document vegetation composition, dynamics, and the diversity of species living in the reservoir areas. 

Benjumea highlighted an intriguing finding from the sampling: they discovered 12 fungal species not yet reported in Colombia, though he emphasized that additional research is needed to confirm these findings. They also recorded 10 species new to Antioquia. “This information is crucial as it expands our knowledge of species distribution and deepens our understanding of local biodiversity,” he explained. 

To assist in identifying this diversity, the Guide presents 40 mushroom species out of the 178 collected within the protected areas of the Porce II and Porce III reservoirs during the sampling period. “People often come across mushrooms without knowing their species. We focused on easily recognizable species. While some mushrooms appear very similar morphologically, microscopic differences reveal that some are edible while others are toxic. We selected species with distinctive features that allow people to identify them by sight alone,” they explained. 

 
Xeromphalina tenuipes belongs to the Basidiomycota division and features a leathery, woody, gelatinous, and fleshy texture. This fungus appears in several Colombian departments, including Amazonas, Antioquia, Boyacá, Cauca, Caquetá, Tolima, and Valle del Cauca. It typically grows on decaying wood, either alone or in small clusters. Photo: Denis Cristina Benjumea. 

Mushrooms are often hard to spot because of their small size, muted colors, and the variety of habitats they grow in—such as damp soil, decaying wood, or in association with other organisms. Locating them often requires extended, careful searches in remote, densely vegetated, or otherwise difficult-to-access areas. Even when discovered, many species are difficult to identify because they closely resemble one another. 

Biologist Denis Cristina Benjumea, a researcher from the TEHO group, explains that what hikers usually notice is only the fruiting body of the fungus. Hidden beneath the surface lies the main structure—the mycelium—a vast network of microscopic filaments that functions like roots and can span several kilometers, far beyond the reach of any tree. 

What’s curious about fungi is that they only become visible when they ‘choose’ to reproduce—under the right conditions of moisture and nutrient-rich soil. That’s when their fruiting bodies emerge, often in the familiar ‘umbrella’ shape we associate with mushrooms. ‘It’s like the fruit of a tree,’ the biologist explained. In other words, when you spot a mushroom, you’re seeing just a minor part of a vast, hidden underground system that keeps it alive. 

During the sampling, the team collected 178 fungal specimens, representing only a minor portion of the territory’s diversity. “We conducted a macroscopic analysis of each specimen, noting characteristics like size, color, taste, and texture,” they explained. “Next, microscopic examination helped us identify the species. While we recorded 178 species, further studies are necessary to confirm if all are truly distinct.” The Colombian Mushroom Catalog (2023) lists 7,241 species registered in the country. 

Porce II and Porce III: richness of tropical forests 

The region surrounding the Porce II reservoir is situated in an open valley featuring low, rounded hills and alluvial formations such as terraces and sidebars, though it lacks a continuous floodplain. The terrain features steep slopes ranging from 22° to 25°. The climate is warm, ranging from 19° to 22°C, and receives abundant rainfall—between 2300 and 3300 mm annually—typical of a tropical rainforest. These conditions foster a remarkable diversity of plant and animal life. 

The Porce III reservoir lies 5.5 km downstream, near the municipalities of Amalfi, Anorí, and Guadalupe. Its distance from Medellín varies between 110 and 175 km, depending on the specific location. The hydroelectric project covers a total of 4,680 hectares. Of this area, the reservoir covers 464 hectares, while the rest consists of protected forests at different growth stages, including sections replanted with native species. These forests serve as a biological corridor linking the Cacica Noria protected area and other key ecosystems.