scholarly journals Empidine dance flies pollinate the woodland geranium as effectively as bees

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (7) ◽  
pp. 20190230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent Lefebvre ◽  
Christophe Daugeron ◽  
Claire Villemant ◽  
Colin Fontaine
Keyword(s):  
Seed Set ◽  
Flower Visitors ◽  
Single Visit ◽  
Subalpine Meadow ◽  
Pollination Effectiveness ◽  
Flower Visiting ◽  
Plant Pollinator ◽  
Effective Pollinators ◽  
Dance Fly ◽  
High Diversity

Most flowering plants species rely on insects for pollination, a successful mutualism allowing them to reproduce over wide areas while flower-visitors are rewarded with food. This association is so conspicuous in the case of bees that other groups of potential pollinators, especially flies, have long been underestimated. However, visitors are not always pollinators. While the importance of flies in plant–visitor networks is now acknowledged, their pollination effectiveness has hardly been investigated. In this study, we assessed the pollination effectiveness of Geranium sylvaticum flower-visitors using single-visit seed set experiments, in a subalpine meadow where flies are predominant. We found that: (i) empidine dance flies were the most frequent visitors of G. sylvaticum ; (ii) a single-visit by an empidine dance fly produced the same average number of seeds as a visit by a bee; (iii) large pollinators were more efficient than small pollinators irrespective of their identity. As a conclusion, large empidines were the main pollinators of G. sylvaticum . Considering the high diversity and abundance of flower-visiting fly species, such results showing their ability to be as effective pollinators as bees should encourage further studies to develop a better understanding on their role in plant–pollinator networks.

scholarly journals A meta-analysis of single visit pollination effectiveness

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maureen L Page ◽  
Charlie C Nicholson ◽  
Ross Brennan ◽  
Anna Britzman ◽  
Jeremy Hemberger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Crop Production ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Crop Plants ◽  
Single Visit ◽  
Pollination Effectiveness ◽  
Visitation Frequency ◽  
Floral Visitors ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Effective Pollinators ◽  
Effective Pollinator

Many animals provide essential ecosystem services in the form of plant pollination. A rich literature documents considerable variation in the single visit pollination effectiveness of different plant visitors, but this literature has yet to be comprehensively synthesized. We conducted a hierarchical meta-analysis of 193 studies and extracted 1716 single visit effectiveness (SVE) comparisons for 252 plant species. We paired SVE data with visitation frequency data for 75 of these studies. Given the global dominance of honeybees in pollinator communities, we used these data to ask: 1) Do honeybees (Apis mellifera) and other floral visitors vary in their SVE?; 2) To what extent do plant and pollinator attributes predict the difference in SVE between honeybees and other visitors?; and 3) Is there a correlation between floral visitation frequency and SVE? We found that honeybees were significantly less effective than the most effective non-honeybee pollinator. Although not significantly different, honeybees also tended to be less effective than the mean community effectiveness. Honeybees were less effective as pollinators of crop plants and when compared to birds and other bees. Visitation frequency and pollination effectiveness were positively correlated, but this trend was largely driven by data from communities where honeybees were absent, suggesting that honeybees generally combine high visitation frequency and lower SVE. Our study demonstrates that non-honeybee floral visitors are highly effective pollinators of many crop and non-crop plants. While the high visitation frequency typically displayed by honeybees undoubtably makes them important pollinators, we show that honeybees are slightly less effective than the average pollinator and rarely the most effective pollinator of the plants they visit. As such, honeybees may be imperfect substitutes for the loss of wild pollinators and safeguarding global crop production will benefit from conservation of non-honeybee taxa.

scholarly journals Efficiency of Buzzing Bees in Fruit Set and Seed Set ofSolanum violaceumin Sri Lanka

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. W. M. U. M. Wanigasekara ◽  
W. A. I. P. Karunaratne
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Seed Production ◽  
Fruit Set ◽  
Seed Set ◽  
Handling Time ◽  
Apis Dorsata ◽  
Buzz Pollination ◽  
Vegetable Crop ◽  
Flower Visiting ◽  
Plant Pollinator

Plant-pollinator interactions are often considered as tightly coevolved, mutualistic relationships. The present study aimed at determining the flower visiting bees of the vegetable crop,Solanum violaceum, and the efficiency of buzz pollination by bees on fruit and seed production in Sri Lanka. Seven bee species:Hoplonomia westwoodi,Amegilla comberi,Patellapis kaluterae,Xylocopa tenuiscapa,Apis dorsata,Trigona iridipennis, andCeratina hieroglyphicavisited the flowers ofS. violaceum, and the first four species were buzzing bees. Buzzing bees were the first to visitSolanumflowers and were followed by nonbuzzing bees. Handling time ofH. westwoodiandP. kaluteraevaried with the availability of pollen in anthers that deplete with the age of flower and stayed longer at new flowers than at old flowers. Handling time of the larger buzzing bee,H. westwoodi, was higher than that of the smallerP. kaluterae. The fruit set, seed set, and seed germinability in flowers visited by buzzing bees were significantly higher than those of the flowers bagged to exclude pollinators.

Visitation frequency of Melampyrum roseum var. japonicum (Scrophulariaceae) by three bumblebee species and its relation to pollination efficiency

2001 ◽  
Vol 79 (10) ◽  
pp. 1167-1174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kayako Hiei ◽  
Kazuo Suzuki
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Seed Set ◽  
Pollination Efficiency ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Bumblebee Species ◽  
Single Visit ◽  
Pollination Effectiveness ◽  
Visitation Frequency ◽  
Pollen Removal

The efficiency of pollination of Melampyrum roseum Maximowicz var. japonicum Franchet et Savatier by three bumblebee species, Bombus consobrinus Vogt, Bombus diversus Smith, and Bombus honshuensis Tkalců, which differ especially in proboscis length, was examined under experimental conditions where visitation frequencies were controlled. First, we found that B. honshuensis, with the shortest proboscis, deposited the most pollen per stigma, resulting in the highest seed set in single visit experiments among the three bumblebee species, while B. diversus removed the most pollen from the anthers. The morphological match between pollinators and flowers was found to be an important factor affecting the per-visit pollination intensity mentioned above. Second, we found that seed set and pollen removal increased when flowers were visited twice by any of the three bumblebee species and that the differences among the three bumblebee species disappeared. When flowers were visited three or four times, the seed set and pollen removal did not increase further. These findings indicate that pollination effectiveness may differ among the bumblebee species only when flowers are infrequently visited by any of the bumblebee species.Key words: Melampyrum roseum, bumblebees, pollination efficiency, reproductive success, seed set, visitation frequency.

scholarly journals Weather Variables Affecting the Behaviour of Insect Flower Visitors and Main Pollinators of Erythroxylum myrsinites Martius (Erythroxylaceae)

Sociobiology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 5451
Author(s):  
Rafael Barbizan Sühs ◽  
Alexandre Somavilla ◽  
Eduardo Luís Hettwer Giehl
Keyword(s):  
Solar Radiation ◽  
Atmospheric Pressure ◽  
Basic Research ◽  
Weather Variables ◽  
Flower Visitors ◽  
Species Dominance ◽  
Pollen Transport ◽  
Number Of Visits ◽  
Flower Visiting ◽  
Plant Pollinator

Basic research assessing environmental effects on entire pollinator communities are still uncommon, particularly for rare and commercially unattractive plant-pollinator partners. We investigated the community of flower visitors of Erythroxylum myrsinites to check for potential pollinators and to check the extent of weather influence of visitor behaviour, registered as the number of visitors attending flowers of E. myrsinites. We then calculated species’ dominance and constancy and assessed location of pollen attachment in each visitor’s body. We correlated weather variables with the composition and abundance of visits carried out by the entire community and by most constant and dominant species. The wasps Polybia sericea, P. ignobilis and P. fastidiosuscula showed the highest values of constancy, dominance and attached pollen. There was a community-level effect of atmospheric pressure, solar radiation and wind speed on the number of visits. Atmospheric pressure affected the number of visits of eudominant species P. fastidiosuscula and P. sericea, while solar radiation affected the number of visits of P. ignobilis. Our results demonstrate the influence of weather variables on flower visiting insects and suggest the importance of native wasps in pollen transport and pollination, a relationship that should be further studied under the worldwide bee pollination decline.

A comparison of flower-visiting insects to rare Symphyotrichum sericeum and common Solidago nemoralis (Asteraceae)

Botany ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 88 (3) ◽  
pp. 241-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Bizecki Robson
Keyword(s):  
Seed Set ◽  
Visitation Rate ◽  
Hand Pollination ◽  
Insect Visitation ◽  
The Common ◽  
Insect Activity ◽  
Flower Visiting ◽  
Common Plant ◽  
Insect Visitors ◽  
Over Time

Flower-visiting insect activity to the rare Symphyotrichum sericeum (Vent.) G.L. Nesom and the common Solidago nemoralis Ait. var. longipetiolata (Mack. & Bush) Pal. & Steyerm. was examined to detect compositional and temporal similarities. A hand pollination experiment was conducted to determine whether pollen was limiting seed set. Of the 31 insect taxa that visited these plants, Bombus bifarius Cresson was the most common visitor to both species. More insect visitors of the Halictidae and Bombyliidae were received by S. sericeum than S. nemoralis, which received more visitors of the Syrphidae and Tachinidae. The insect visitation rate was not significantly different between the two plant species. Solidago nemoralis was visited by fewer insect taxa per day than S. sericeum, but the constancy of its visitors was higher. The insect visitor composition changed over time, with B. bifarius ignoring S. sericeum plants initially, then visiting them more frequently as the number of receptive S. nemoralis capitula declined. Hand pollination increased seed set in the earliest flowering capitula of S. sericeum, but not for those flowering during the peak. This research shows that the quantity of insect visits to the rare plant is comparable with that of the common plant but that pollination quality may be lower, particularly for early blooming capitula.

scholarly journals The floriphilic katydid, Phaneroptera brevis, is a frequent flower visitor of non-native, flowering forbs

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 21-26
Author(s):  
Ming Kai Tan ◽  
Hui Lee ◽  
Hugh Tiang Wah Tan
Keyword(s):  
Model Organism ◽  
Environmental Parameters ◽  
Plant Species Richness ◽  
Limited Information ◽  
Pollination Services ◽  
Resource Concentration ◽  
Flower Visitors ◽  
Resource Concentration Hypothesis ◽  
Flower Visitation ◽  
Flower Visiting

Distribution of consumers in a patch of vegetation can be predicted by resource availability and explained by the resource-concentration and optimal-foraging hypotheses. These hypotheses have not been explored for flower-visiting Orthoptera because they are deemed less economically or ecologically important. Some flower-visiting orthopterans can provide pollination services, which warrants more attention. We studied a Singaporean, floriphilic katydid, Phaneropterabrevis, to investigate the following questions: 1) how frequently does P.brevis visit flowers compared to other flower visitors and 2) what factors predict the abundance of P.brevis? We collected abundance data for P.brevis and other flower-visiting arthropods and quantified seven environmental parameters, including flower abundance and host-plant species richness. We found that P.brevis frequents flowers significantly more often than some common and expected flower visitors such as hoverflies. In line with the prediction of the resource-concentration hypothesis, the abundance of P.brevis was positively correlated with a higher flower abundance. Owing to the limited information on unexpected wild flower visitors and pollinators, especially from the understudied tropics of Southeast Asia, we propose that P.brevis can be a model organism for future studies to answer fundamental questions on flower visitation.

Types of Flower Visitors: Syndromes, Constancy, and Effectiveness

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pat Willmer
Keyword(s):  
Adaptive Radiation ◽  
Convergent Evolution ◽  
Pollination Syndromes ◽  
Pollinator Effectiveness ◽  
Flower Constancy ◽  
Flower Visitors ◽  
Floral Constancy ◽  
Effective Pollinators

This chapter examines pollination syndromes, floral constancy, and pollinator effectiveness. Flowers show enormous adaptive radiation, but the same kind of flower reappears by convergent evolution in many different families. Thus many families produce rather similar, simple bowl-shaped flowers like buttercups; many produce similar zygomorphic tubular lipped flowers; and many produce fluffy flower heads of massed (often white) florets. These broad flower types are the basis of the idea of pollination syndromes—the flowers have converged on certain morphologies and reward patterns because they are exploiting the abilities and preferences of particular kinds of visitor. After providing an overview of pollination syndromes, the chapter explains why pollination syndromes can be defended. It then considers flower constancy, along with the distinction between flower visitors and effective pollinators. It concludes with some observations on how flower visitors can contribute to speciation of plants through specialization and through their constancy.

A meta‐analysis of single visit pollination effectiveness comparing honeybees and other floral visitors

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.L. Page ◽  
C.C. Nicholson ◽  
R.M. Brennan ◽  
A.T. Britzman ◽  
J. Greer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Single Visit ◽  
Pollination Effectiveness ◽  
Floral Visitors

Predator Effects on Plant-Pollinator Interactions, Plant Reproduction, Mating Systems, and Evolution

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 319-340
Author(s):  
Amanda D. Benoit ◽  
Susan Kalisz
Keyword(s):  
Mating Systems ◽  
Seed Set ◽  
Pollen Limitation ◽  
Plant Traits ◽  
Plant Reproduction ◽  
Trophic Levels ◽  
Interaction Networks ◽  
Pollinator Abundance ◽  
Plant Pollinator ◽  
Predator Effects

Plants are the foundation of the food web and therefore interact directly and indirectly with myriad organisms at higher trophic levels. They directly provide nourishment to mutualistic and antagonistic primary consumers (e.g., pollinators and herbivores), which in turn are consumed by predators. These interactions produce cascading indirect effects on plants (either trait-mediated or density-mediated). We review how predators affect plant-pollinator interactions and thus how predators indirectly affect plant reproduction, fitness, mating systems, and trait evolution. Predators can influence pollinator abundance and foraging behavior. In many cases, predators cause pollinators to visit plants less frequently and for shorter durations. This decline in visitation can lead to pollen limitation and decreased seed set. However, alternative outcomes can result due to differences in predator, pollinator, and plant functional traits as well as due to altered interaction networks with plant enemies. Furthermore, predators may indirectly affect the evolution of plant traits and mating systems.

Solitary bee pollinators adjust pollen foraging to the unpredictable flower opening of a species of Petunia (Solanaceae)

2019 ◽  
Vol 129 (2) ◽  
pp. 273-287
Author(s):  
Fernanda Figueiredo De Araujo ◽  
Reisla Oliveira ◽  
Theo Mota ◽  
João Renato Stehmann ◽  
Clemens Schlindwein
Keyword(s):  
Floral Biology ◽  
Floral Resources ◽  
Pollen Foraging ◽  
Flower Opening ◽  
Foraging Patterns ◽  
Social Species ◽  
Pollen Presentation ◽  
Total Pollen ◽  
Flower Visiting ◽  
Effective Pollinators

Abstract Details of the foraging patterns of solitary bees are much less well known than those of social species, and these patterns are often adjusted to exploit floral resources of one or only a few species. The specialized flower-visiting bees of Petunia are good models for investigating such foraging patterns. Here we analysed the floral biology and pollen presentation schedule of the endangered Petunia mantiqueirensis in mixed Araucaria forests of Serra da Mantiqueira, Brazil. Pollinators and their pollen foraging behaviour and food specialization were determined through analyses of scopa pollen loads. Flowers opened throughout the day and presented all their pollen resources within the first 30 min of anthesis, thus providing their pollen resources in an asynchronous fashion in one-flower packages throughout the day. Females of Pseudagapostemon fluminensis were the most frequent flower visitors, contacting stigmas in 96% of their visits, and were the unique effective pollinators of Petunia mantiqueirensis. These pollinators were responsible for the first three visits to 115 individually monitored flowers at any daylight hour, removing ~86% of a flower’s total pollen supply during the first visit. Although female bees harvest the majority of pollen resources of Petunia mantiqueirensis, analyses of scopa loads revealed that most of them also collect pollen from plants of other families while foraging for pollen in Petunia flowers.

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