Flower visitors and pollination in the Oriental (Indomalayan) Region

Abstract

Current knowledge of flower visitors and pollination in the Oriental Region is summarised. Much less is known about pollination than seed dispersal and the coverage of habitats and taxa in the region is very uneven. The available evidence suggests that pollination in lowland forests is dominated by highly social bees (mainly Trigona and Apis species), with beetles probably the next most important group, followed by other bees and flies. In comparison with the better-studied Neotropics, large solitary bees, moths, Lepidoptera and vertebrates are relatively less important. These differences are greatest in the canopy of the lowland dipterocarp forests of Southeast Asia, where they probably reflect the unique temporal pattern of floral resource availability resulting from 'general flowering' at supra-annual intervals. Apis bees (but not Trigona species) are also important in most montane, subtropical and non-forest habitats. Apart from the figs (Ficus spp.), there are few well-documented examples of plant species visited by a single potential pollinator and most plant-pollinator relationships in the region appear to be relatively generalised. The small sizes of most pollinators and the absence of direct human exploitation probably make pollination mutualisms less vulnerable to failure as a result of human impacts than dispersal mutualisms, but more subtle impacts, as a result of altered gene flows, are likely to be widespread. On current evidence, pollination systems in the Oriental Region do not require any specific conservation action, but this review reinforces arguments for making the preservation (or restoration) of habitat connectivity the major focus of Oriental conservation.

Insect’s Visitation on Melastoma malabathricum in UKM Bangi Forest Reserve

“…It was identified that Nomia sp. pollinated the plant species that were on the forest floor, in the under storey or in forest gaps with relatively long floral tube, and this was exactly like where and what M. malabathricum were found and looks like [11]. Another species from Apidae family that was found on M. malabathricum is Amegilla zonata (L.), also known locally as the Blue-banded bee.…”

Contribution of Plantation Forest on Wild Bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) Pollinators Conservation in Mount Slamet, Central Java, Indonesia

“…The bee fauna of the Indomalayan regions is the poorest (89 genera) in the world compared to the other regions, because the higest bee diversity was in arid temperates regions (Corlett, 2004), however bees are recognized as important pollinators for both crops and wild plants worldwide (Klein et al, 2008;Potts et al, 2010). Most bees are solitary but many nest communally and eusocial species with female castes are found in the families Halictidae and Apidae (Corlett, 2004).…”

“…Most bees are solitary but many nest communally and eusocial species with female castes are found in the families Halictidae and Apidae (Corlett, 2004).…”

Floral traits as potential indicators of pollination vs. theft

“…Pollination units, such as flower blossoms or inflorescences (sensu Faegri & van der Pijl 1979), are visited by a large variety of floral visitors (Faegri & van der Pijl 1979;Corlett 2004). Importantly, however, flower visitation does not necessarily mean pollination (Waser et al 1996;Waser et al 2015).…”

“…Later, they were pinned or stored in alcohol, morphotyped and sent to specialists for identification. Classification of insect groups followed Corlett (2004). Performance of the floral visitor as a pollinator was determined through observations of intrafloral behavior, analysis of photographic records, floral morphology and/or the size relationship between flower and visitor.…”