-Adenocalymma bracteatum is a shrub of dense foliage and yellow fl owers, easily found on grasslands areas in Central Brazil. The aim of this study was to determine the reproductive biology and the fl ower visitors of A. bracteatum in a pasture area nearby Ivinhema city, MS (Brazil). The fl owering peak occurs in winter. The fl ower refl ects ultraviolet light. Anthesis begins at 6:30h, and pollen and nectar are the resources to visitors. We captured 1,038 fl oral visitors. The bees Apis mellifera (L.), Trigona sp., Trigona spinipes (Fabricius), (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) and the ant Cephalotes sp. (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) were the main visitors. The reproductive tests indicate that A. bracteatum is self compatible, justifying its expansion in altered environments; however, the largest reproductive success was dependant on cross-pollination and self-pollination, evidencing the pollinators importance. Adenocalymma bracteatum presents melittophilous syndrome and bumblebees were the main pollinators in the area. The correlations observed between the climatic variables and the main pollinator species were low or medium.KEY WORDS: Floral trait, pillager, pollinator, beeThe interactions between animals and plants are infl uenced by several community-specifi c biotic and abiotic factors. The study of such characteristics, joined to the species phenology, is crucial to understand the co-evolutionary and ecological processes observed between plants and pollinators (Pellmyr & Thompson 1996, Thompson 1999, 2005. Although widely spread and diversifi ed, the relations between plants and pollinators are seldom studied regarding the impact of seasonal changes and species phenology on ecological interactions ( . Pollination studies enhance our understanding of such interactions and provide feedback information for the appropriate management and preservation of tropical environments. When the species being studied belong to important families characterized by numerous species, high abundance of individuals, and wider geographic distribution, the information obtained is still more relevant. This is the case of the Bignoniaceae family (Udulutsch et al 2004, Kinoshita et al 2006, with about 800 species and the predominance of lianas belonging to tribe Bignoniae in the Neotropical region (Gentry 1974a(Gentry , 1980. With the aim of increasing the knowledge about the importance of ecological relations on pollination, the objective of this study was to identify the fl oral visitors of Adenocalymma bracteatum (tribe Bignoniae), to describe the behaviour of the most frequent and the potential effective pollinators, and to characterize the fl oral and reproductive biology of the relation between environmental factors and the visiting species.
Material and MethodsField research was conducted on a roadside approximately three kilometers north of urban Ivinhema city, state of Mato Grosso do Sul (22º18'S, 53º48'W), Brazil. This is a transition area in terms of fl oristic composition, containing grasses, shrubs and creepers (in pastures...