Are Nectar Sugar Composition and Corolla Tube Length Related to the Diversity of Insects that Visit Asteraceae Flowers?

By C. Torres, L. Galetto. 2002

102 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract: In this work, we analysed interspecific variation in nectar sugar composition, corolla tube length, and the diversity of floral visitors of 35 Asteraceae species. The potential correlations between these variables could arise either as a result of selection to improve pollinator attractiveness or simply as a consequence of phylogenetic constraints. Samples of nectar and flowers, and data on floral visitors, were obtained from living plants in natural populations from Argentina. Asteraceae species showed a large variability in corolla tube length. Nectar of most species presented a larger proportion of hexoses than sucrose. All species were visited by numerous insects belonging to 2 different orders. Results showed that floral traits are not significantly correlated with the diversity of floral visitors. These characters seem to be linked to the phylogeny of the species. Early branching species (species phylogenetically close to the root of the Asteraceae tree) tend to have longer corollas, higher sucrose proportions and lesser diversity of floral visitors than late branching species. Considering that longer corolla tubes and higher nectar sucrose percentages may indicate some specialization in the pollination system, we suggest that there is an evolutionary tendency toward generalist pollination systems within the family.

Subfields: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Plant Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/5f99be4ce2941f5bca9316d368daa855406c235d

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In Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

In Plant Science

Citations in the corpus

Long Tongues and Loose Niches: Evolution of Euglossine Bees and Their Nectar Flowers 1 (2005, methodology): “However, investigating the evolution of these relationships within a taxonomic group requires that we take into account phylogenetic information (Ollerton 1996, Armbruster & Baldwin 1998, Torres & Galetto 2002).”
Size constraints and flower abundance determine the number of interactions in a plant /flower visitor web (2006, background): “Most other studies analyzing size parameters have been based on broader geographical areas or have included only one plant family or one visitor group, and they have found only in part an association (Dupont & Skov, 2004; Haber & Frankie, 1989; Herrera, 1996; Torres & Galetto, 2002).”
Nutritional aspects of non-prey foods in the life histories of predaceous Coccinellidae (2009, background): “A closer examination reveals that a number of mono- and di-saccharides (as well as some oligo-saccharides) are present in many nectars, but at much lower concentrations than sucrose and its metabolites (Torres and Galetto, 2002; Petanidou, 2005).”