Complex flowers and rare pollinators: Does ant pollination in Ditassa show a stable system in Asclepiadoideae (Apocynaceae)?

Domingos‐Melo, Arthur; Nadia, Tarcila de Lima; Machado, Isabel Cristina

doi:10.1007/s11829-017-9499-3

Cited by 29 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 48 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…ants can be toxic to pollen (e.g., Beattie et al 1984;Gómez and Zamora 1992). Ants also are less likely than flying insects to visit flowers on plants separated by any distance, resulting in a high likelihood for within-plant pollination if ants do carry pollen from one flower to another (summarized in Domingos-Melo et al 2017). This is likely reflected in our observation that those ants that did carry pollen were most likely to carry only conspecific pollen and very unlikely to carry mixed pollen loads.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Conserving All the Pollinators: Variation in Probability of Pollen Transport among Insect Taxa

Larson

Larson²,

Buhl

2018

Natural Areas Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

As concern about declining pollinator populations mounts, it is important to understand the range of insect taxa that provide pollination services. We use pollen transport information acquired over three years in two habitats at Badlands National Park, South Dakota, USA, to compare probabilities of pollen transport among insect taxa and between sexes of bees. Sampling was conducted on 1-ha plots, eight in sparse vegetation (May-October samples; N = 74 surveys) and 12 in wheatgrass prairie vegetation (June-July samples; N = 87 surveys). Insects contacting reproductive parts of flowers were netted, placed individually into tubes charged with ethyl acetate, then transferred to individual labeled glassine envelopes for transport to the lab. Pollen was removed from insect bodies with fuchsin jelly cubes which were then mounted on microscope slides for identification. The probability of taxa transporting only conspecific pollen (with respect to the plant species upon which it was collected), mixed pollen, only non-conspecific, or no pollen was estimated with multinomial logistic regression. Bees were the most commonly captured flower visitor and carried by far the most pollen (females >10× as much as males), but they were most likely to carry mixed pollen loads. Flies, beetles, and wasps were also common flower visitors and beetles were most likely to carry only conspecific pollen. Ants and diurnal lepidopterans were unlikely to carry any pollen. Bees, beetles, flies, and wasps varied in the timing and habitat in which they were most likely to transport pollen, suggesting that all played a role in providing robust pollination services.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Conserving All the Pollinators: Variation in Probability of Pollen Transport among Insect Taxa

Larson

Larson²,

Buhl

2018

Natural Areas Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…We found that two ant species were the most frequent visitors of E. seguieriana flowers and accounted for two thirds of all recorded insects. A high or very high abundance of ants has been reported as a typical characteristic of ant pollinated plants (e.g., De Vega et al, 2009 ; Domingos-Melo, Nadia & Machado, 2017 ; Gómez & Zamora, 1992 ; Ibarra-Isassi & Sendoya, 2016 ). Workers of T. erraticum also showed a fairly constant appearance as their visitation rates were neither influenced by time of day nor weather, quite in contrast to winged insects, which were abundant on sunny days but not when it rained.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Alternatively, pollen transfer in the form of pollinia can be regarded as a preadaptation for successful ant pollination too, as this prevents the pollen grains from contact with the metapleural secretion. Ant pollination has been reported in several species of the pollinia-forming families Orchidaceae and Apocynaceae ( Domingos-Melo, Nadia & Machado, 2017 ; Peakall & Beattie, 1989 ; Schiestl & Glaser, 2012 ). In Central Europe two orchid species, Coeloglossum viride and Chamorchis alpine , are known to be pollinated by ants ( Baumann & Baumann, 2010 ; Claessens & Seifert, 2017 ; Schiestl & Glaser, 2012 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ants contribute to pollination but not to reproduction in a rare calcareous grassland forb

Rostás

Bollmann

Saville

et al. 2018

PeerJ

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The number of plants pollinated by ants is surprisingly low given the abundance of ants and the fact that they are common visitors of angiosperms. Generally ants are considered as nectar robbers that do not provide pollination service. We studied the pollination system of the endangered dry grassland forb Euphorbia seguieriana and found two ant species to be the most frequent visitors of its flowers. Workers of Formica cunicularia carried five times more pollen than smaller Tapinoma erraticum individuals, but significantly more viable pollen was recovered from the latter. Overall, the viability of pollen on ant cuticles was significantly lower (p < 0.001)—presumably an antibiotic effect of the metapleural gland secretion. A marking experiment suggested that ants were unlikely to facilitate outcrossing as workers repeatedly returned to the same individual plant. In open pollinated plants and when access was given exclusively to flying insects, fruit set was nearly 100%. In plants visited by ants only, roughly one third of flowers set fruit, and almost none set fruit when all insects were excluded. The germination rate of seeds from flowers pollinated by flying insects was 31 ± 7% in contrast to 1 ± 1% resulting from ant pollination. We conclude that inbreeding depression may be responsible for the very low germination rate in ant pollinated flowers and that ants, although the most frequent visitors, play a negligible or even deleterious role in the reproduction of E. seguieriana. Our study reiterates the need to investigate plant fitness effects beyond seed set in order to confirm ant-plant mutualisms.

show abstract

“…While extensive phenotypic variation exists between ant species, there are some general reasons for this limited role in pollination including the following: (1) low dispersal ability relative to winged insects (e.g. bees and flies); (2) small body size relative to floral structures that may restrict contact with plant reproductive organs; (3) frequent self-grooming behaviour, removing pollen from cuticle and appendages and (4) the presence of metapleural glands that produce antibiotic compounds and reduce the viability of adhered pollen grains (Altshuler 1999;Beattie et al 1984;Domingos-Melo et al 2017;Dutton and Frederickson 2012). Despite these factors, ants may still influence pollination, either directly as legitimate pollinators (Carvalheiro et al 2010;Del-Claro et al 2019) or indirectly by altering behaviours of other (winged) flower visitors (Altshuler 1999;Assunção et al 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) on flying insect visitor behaviour and fruit production in açaí palm (Euterpe oleracea Martius)

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Açaí palm (Euterpe oleracea) production in the Amazon region has grown rapidly in recent decades to meet both domestic and international demand for the fruit. Understanding functional roles of different insects in açaí fruit production is essential for the development of sustainable management practices and the conservation of associated biodiversity in plantations. Ants play a variety of key roles in agroecosystems, particularly as predators, but may also influence crop pollination, either directly (as legitimate pollinators) or indirectly by altering behaviour/density of other flower visitors. Here, we compare flower visitor communities, behavioural interactions between ants and flying insects and fruit production in açaí inflorescences, under the experimental exclusion of ants. Flying insects differed in their response to experimental exclusion of ants, with bees and flies found in higher abundance on inflorescences where ants had been excluded. In contrast, beetles and wasps were unaffected by ant exclosure. Among bees, only medium‐sized species, but not small‐sized and large‐sized species, were affected by the presence of ants. However, fruit production on inflorescences did not differ among ant exclosure treatments. We found clear evidence that ants interfere with flying insects visiting açaí inflorescences, but these changes do not affect açaí fruit production, likely due to the large diversity of flying insects that contribute to pollination services. Therefore, given their potential role as pest natural enemies, control of ant colonies in plantations is not recommended.

show abstract

Complex flowers and rare pollinators: Does ant pollination in Ditassa show a stable system in Asclepiadoideae (Apocynaceae)?

Cited by 29 publications

References 48 publications

Conserving All the Pollinators: Variation in Probability of Pollen Transport among Insect Taxa

Conserving All the Pollinators: Variation in Probability of Pollen Transport among Insect Taxa

Ants contribute to pollination but not to reproduction in a rare calcareous grassland forb

Effects of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) on flying insect visitor behaviour and fruit production in açaí palm (Euterpe oleracea Martius)

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About