TY - JOUR
T1 - Red anemone guild flowers as focal places for mating and feeding by Levant glaphyrid beetles
AU - Keasar, Tamar
AU - Harari, Ally R.
AU - Sabatinelli, Guido
AU - Keith, Denis
AU - Dafni, Amots
AU - Shavit, Ofrit
AU - Zylbertal, Asaph
AU - Shmida, Avi
PY - 2010/4
Y1 - 2010/4
N2 - Several species of glaphyrid (Scarabaeoidea: Glaphyridae) beetles forage and mate on Mediterranean red bowl-shaped flowers. In red anemones and poppies in Israel, female beetles occupy only a subset of the flowers, do not aggregate, and are hidden below the petals. This raises the question of how males find their mates. In the present study, we investigated the hypothesis that males and females orient to similar plant-generated cues, thereby increasing their mate encounter prospects. Previous studies have demonstrated that beetle attraction to red models increases with display area. Choice tests with flowers and with models indicate that both male and female beetles prefer large displays. In anemones, beetles rest, feed, and mate mainly on male-phase flowers, which are larger than female-phase flowers. Poppies that contain beetles are larger than the population average. These findings support the hypothesis that males and females meet by orienting to large red displays. Corolla size correlates with pollen reward in both plant species, suggesting that visits to large flowers also yield foraging benefits. Male beetles often jump rapidly among adjacent flowers. By contrast to the preference for large flowers by stationary individuals, these jump sequences are random with respect to flower sex-phase (in anemone) and size (in poppy). They may enable males to detect females at close range. We hypothesize that males employ a mixed mate-searching strategy, combining orientation to floral signals and to female-produced cues. The glaphyrids' preference for large flowers may have selected for extraordinarily large displays within the 'red anemone' pollination guild of the Levant.
AB - Several species of glaphyrid (Scarabaeoidea: Glaphyridae) beetles forage and mate on Mediterranean red bowl-shaped flowers. In red anemones and poppies in Israel, female beetles occupy only a subset of the flowers, do not aggregate, and are hidden below the petals. This raises the question of how males find their mates. In the present study, we investigated the hypothesis that males and females orient to similar plant-generated cues, thereby increasing their mate encounter prospects. Previous studies have demonstrated that beetle attraction to red models increases with display area. Choice tests with flowers and with models indicate that both male and female beetles prefer large displays. In anemones, beetles rest, feed, and mate mainly on male-phase flowers, which are larger than female-phase flowers. Poppies that contain beetles are larger than the population average. These findings support the hypothesis that males and females meet by orienting to large red displays. Corolla size correlates with pollen reward in both plant species, suggesting that visits to large flowers also yield foraging benefits. Male beetles often jump rapidly among adjacent flowers. By contrast to the preference for large flowers by stationary individuals, these jump sequences are random with respect to flower sex-phase (in anemone) and size (in poppy). They may enable males to detect females at close range. We hypothesize that males employ a mixed mate-searching strategy, combining orientation to floral signals and to female-produced cues. The glaphyrids' preference for large flowers may have selected for extraordinarily large displays within the 'red anemone' pollination guild of the Levant.
KW - Beetle pollination
KW - Co-evolution
KW - Display size
KW - Glaphyridae
KW - Mate searching
KW - Red
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77952790330&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/j.1095-8312.2010.01384.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1095-8312.2010.01384.x
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AN - SCOPUS:77952790330
SN - 0024-4066
VL - 99
SP - 808
EP - 817
JO - Biological Journal of the Linnean Society
JF - Biological Journal of the Linnean Society
IS - 4
ER -