Convergent evolution of carrion and faecal scent mimicry in fly-pollinated angiosperm flowers and a stinkhorn fungus.

By Steven B. Johnson, A. Jürgens. 2010

110 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Flowers of many angiosperms attract fly pollinators through mimicry of animal carrion and faeces. This phenomenon of “sapromyiophily” is also evident in the sporophytes of some mosses and fruiting bodies of “stinkhorn” fungi, both of which use flies as agents of spore dispersal. We studied the scent chemistry of a stinkhorn fungus ( Clathrus archeri ) and seven fly-pollinated plant species with foetid odours to determine the degree to which these organisms mimic the scent of carrion and faeces (reference scent samples were collected from rotting meat, a rat carcass and horse and dog faeces), as well as the degree of convergent evolution between the fungus and angiosperm flowers. We found that scents of both the fungus and angiosperms tended to contain compounds typical of carrion, such as oligosulphides, and of faeces, such as phenol, indole and p-cresol. This study provides compelling new evidence for mimicry of carrion and faeces, as well as a striking pattern of convergence in the putrid scents of the fungus and the angiosperms, relative to those of confamilial species. The syndrome of sapromyiophily thus encompasses at least two kingdoms (Plantae and Fungi) and provides an effective means of exploiting flies as agents of pollen and spore dispersal.

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

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/df5b7b0d8a75d1c695f8eb44b20279040aeda850

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In Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

1. P. Kevan
2. David I. Inouye
3. B. Larson
4. T. Woodcock
5. K. Lunau

In Plant Science

1. P. Kevan
2. B. Larson
3. David I. Inouye
4. T. Woodcock
5. K. Lunau
6. S. Wipf
7. Jessica R. K. Forrest

Citations in the corpus

• Flies and Flowers II: Floral Attractants and Rewards (2014, background): “…include saprophilous families such as Calliphoridae, Sarcophagidae, Sphaeroceridae, Mycetophilidae, and Drosophilidae (Agnew 1976; Faegri & van der Pijl 1979; Wolda & Sabrosky 1986; Proctor et al. 1996; Burgess et al. 2004; Johnson & Jurgens 2010; Stoekl et al. 2010; Gottsberger et al. 2011) (Tab.”