Teasing out the functional groups of oil-collecting bees in the light of the pollination of Nierembergia flowers

MAUBECIN, CONSTANZA C.; ROCAMUNDI, NICOLÁS; PALOMBO, NAHUEL; AGUIRRE, LILIANA A.; COCUCCI, ANDREA A.; SÉRSIC, ALICIA N.

ARTHROPOD-PLANT INTERACTIONS

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2021 vol. 15 p. 809 - 819

1872-8855

Pollinationinteractions between plants bearing oil-flowers and oil-collectingbees are regarded as specialized, and within the major group of bees,oil-collecting bees are considered a special functional group ofpollinators, yet they encompass a great diversity, not only attaxonomic level but also in morphological and behavioral aspects.Since the functional group of oil-collecting bees is functionallydiverse, we examined whether these bees, despite their grosscommonalities, may be exerting divergence within and amongoil-flowered species or, alternatively, promoting convergence to somegeneral oil-flower morphology that can be pollinated by a functionalrange of oil-bees. To answer this question, we recorded pol- linatorassemblages of 18 taxa of Nierembergia, as well as the foragingbehavior, visitation frequency, and morphometric characterization ofall oil-collecting bees species that pollinate the flowers of thosetaxa, by field observations and sampling. We found that thepollinator assemblages of the species and varieties of Nierembergialargely differed among taxa. 14 spe- cies of oil-collecting bees,belonging to the genera Chalepogenus, Centris, Tapinotaspis,Caenonomada, Tetrapedia, and Arhysoceble, were recorded aspollinators of Nierembergia flowers. These pollinator species variedin multivariate body size, rewards-gathering behavior, and way theycarry out pollination on flowers. According to our results,Nierembergia flowers are pollinated by five functional groups ofoil-collecting bees that presumably promote divergence within andamong Nierembergia taxa. Floral resource-harvesting behavior ofoil-collecting bees species that pollinate Nierembergia flowers wouldbe a key feature in the definition of functional groups and in thediversification of flower features in Nierembergia.p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 115%; background: transparent }