AOBPreview originally published online on October 20, 2007
Annals of Botany 2007 100(7):1483-1489; doi:10.1093/aob/mcm256
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The Role of Beetle Marks and Flower Colour on Visitation by Monkey Beetles (Hopliini) in the Greater Cape Floral Region, South Africa
1 Centre for Invasion Biology, School of Biological and Conservation Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, P. Bag X01 Scottsville, Pietermaritzburg 3209, South Africa
2 South African National Biodiversity Institute, P. Bag X7 Claremont, Cape Town 7735, South Africa
* For correspondence. Current address: Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, Altenbergrain 21, CH-3013 Bern, Switzerland. E-mail vkleunen{at}ips.unibe.ch
Received: 3 July 2007 Returned for revision: 9 August 2007 Accepted: 29 August 2007 Published electronically: 20 October 2007
Background and Aims: A deviation from the classical beetle pollination syndrome of dull-coloured flowers with an unpleasant scent is found in the Greater Cape Floral Region of South Africa. Here, monkey beetles (Scarabaeidae) visit brightly coloured, odourless flowers with conspicuous dark spots and centres (beetle marks). The role of flower colour and markings in attracting monkey beetles is still poorly understood.
Methods: Artificial model flowers with different marking patterns were used to test the effect of beetle marks on visitation by monkey beetles. To test whether monkey beetles are conditioned to the colour of the local matrix species, model flowers of different colours were placed in populations of three differently coloured species of Iridaceae.
Key Results: Among all three matrix species the presence of dark markings of some kind (either centres or spots) increased visitation rates but the different matrix species differed in whether the effect was due to a dark centre or to dark spots. Monkey beetles were not conditioned for the colour of the matrix species: model colour was not significant in the Hesperantha vaginata and in the Romulea monadelpha matrices, whereas yellow model flowers were preferred over orange ones in the orange-flowered Sparaxis elegans matrix.
Conclusions: This study is the first to demonstrate that beetle marks attract pollinating monkey beetles in the Greater Cape Floral Region. In contrast to plants with the classical beetle pollination syndrome that use floral scent as the most important attractant of pollinating beetles, plants with the monkey beetle pollination syndrome rely on visual signals, and, in some areas at least, monkey beetles favour flowers with dark beetle markings over unmarked flowers.
Key words: Beetle marks, beetle pollination syndrome, cantharophily, Greater Cape Floral Region, convergent evolution, Iridaceae, monkey beetles, pollinator attraction
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