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AOBPreview originally published online on November 7, 2008
Annals of Botany 2009 103(1):39-44; doi:10.1093/aob/mcn212
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

A new pollination system: brood-site pollination by flower bugs in Macaranga (Euphorbiaceae)

Chikako Ishida1, Masumi Kono2 and Shoko Sakai3,*

1 Center for Ecological Research, Kyoto University, Otsu 520-2113, Japan
2 Department of Botany, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan
3 Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Kamigamo, Kita-ku, Kyoto 603-8047, Japan

* For correspondence. E-mail shokosakai{at}chikyu.ac.jp

Received: 29 June 2008    Returned for revision: 1 September 2008    Accepted: 22 September 2008    Published electronically: 7 November 2008

Background and Aims Macaranga: (Euphorbiaceae) is a large genus of dioecious trees with approx. 260 species. To date, only one pollination study of the genus has reported brood-site pollination by thrips in M. hullettii. In this study, the pollination system of Macaranga tanarius is reported.

Methods: The study was conducted on Okinawa and Amami Islands, Japan. Flower visitors on M. tanarius were collected and their pollen load and behaviour on the flowers examined, as well as inflorescence structure and reward for the pollinators.

Key Results: The most abundant flower visitors found on the male and female inflorescences were Orius atratus (Anthocoridae, Hemiptera), followed by Decomioides schneirlai (Miridae, Hemiptera). Pollen load on O. atratus from flowering pistillate inflorescences was detected as well as from staminate flowers. Orius atratus and D. schneirlai are likely to use the enclosed chambers formed by floral bracts as breeding sites before and during flower anthesis, and feed on nectar on the adaxial surface of flower bracts. The extrafloral nectary has a ball-shaped structure and the contained nectar is not exposed; the hemipterans pierce the ball to suck out the nectar.

Conclusions: The results indicate that the plant is pollinated by flower bugs breeding on the inflorescences. This study may be the first report of pollination systems in which flower bugs are the main pollinators. Similarity of pollination systems between M. hullettii and M. tanarius indicates that the two brood-site pollination systems have the same origin. The pollinator species belongs to a predacious group, whose major prey includes thrips. The pollination system might represent a unique example of evolution from predatory flower visitors feeding on the pollinators (thrips) to the main pollinators.

Key words: Amami, brood-site pollination, dioecy, Euphorbiaceae, extrafloral nectary, Hemiptera, Macaranga tanarius, Okinawa, Orius atratus


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