Overlooked flower-visiting Orthoptera in Southeast Asia

Abstract

The study of insect-plant interactions such as flower visitors, pollinators, and florivores, are important for understanding the natural world. However, not all flower-visiting insects are equally well known, especially in the biodiverse Southeast Asian region. One group is the orthopterans, comprising of grasshoppers, crickets, and katydids. Natural history observations were made around Southeast Asia to document flower-visiting orthopterans. Owing to the limited studies on the ecology of orthopterans in Southeast Asia, we provide here the first documentation of flowervisiting orthopterans from Southeast Asia and the most extensive one for the Tropics. Based on 140 incidences of orthopteran visiting flowers, 41 orthopteran species have so far been recorded to visit 35 different plant species, in mainly Singapore, Malaysia, part of Thailand, and Brunei Darussalam. We conclude that orthopterans are indeed overlooked flowervisitors in this region and warrant further investigation.

Social wasps, crickets and cockroaches contribute to pollination of the holoparasitic plant Mitrastemon yamamotoi (Mitrastemonaceae) in southern Japan

“…Orthopterans are generally considered herbivores, rather than pollinators (Suetsugu & Tanaka ; Tan et al . ). In the present study, D. yakumontana and D. ivani consumed pollen grains and nectar of M. yamamotoi but did not damage the other floral parts, such as stigmas.…”

A gentle floriphilic katydid Phaneroptera brevis can help with the pollination of Bidens pilosa

“…These floriphilic orthopterans include a Phaneropterinid katydid, Phaneroptera brevis (Serville, 1838), which can be found frequently among flowers in Southeast Asia (Tan et al. ). Adults and nymphs of P. brevis can frequently be observed feeding on the capitula (inflorescences) of Bidens pilosa L. (Asteraceae), a tropical to warm‐temperate North and South American plant of disturbed sites (Strother and Weedon ) and that grows in grass‐ and scrubland close to urban areas in Singapore.…”

“…Despite B. pilosa not being native to Southeast Asia, its flowers are frequently visited by many native insects (e.g., Aculeata, Lepidoptera, and Diptera), including orthopterans (Tan et al. ). Self‐incompatibility means that B. pilosa requires these insects for cross pollination.…”

“…However, more recently, at least 41 orthopteran species were recorded to visit flowers in Southeast Asia (Tan et al. ), representing an approximately fivefold increase in the published number of flower‐visiting orthopterans from other parts of the world (e.g., Schuster , Suetsugu and Tanaka ). While we are still discovering new orthopteran species (Tan et al.…”

“…), and thus orthopteran–plant interactions (Tan et al. ), many orthopterans are also nocturnal and their interactions with plants (including pollination services) can remain cryptic to observers so the number of orthopteran pollinators requires re‐evaluation.…”