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Pollination of the cycad Zamia incognita A. Lindstr. & Idárraga by Pharaxonotha beetles in the Magdalena Medio Valley, Colombia: a mutualism dependent on a specific pollinator and its significance for conservation

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Abstract

The genus Zamia (Zamiaceae: Cycadales) exhibits its greatest diversity in Colombia and is highly threatened by habitat loss, extraction for ornamental plant trade, and mining, among other factors. One of the most important considerations for the effective conservation of Zamia is its highly specialized reproductive biology. Despite the importance of pollination for the populations’ viability, no studies have examined the pollination process of cycads in Colombia. Herein, we describe the pollination process of Zamia incognita A. Lindstr. & Idárraga, in a natural population. Exclusion experiments were performed by selectively excluding wind, beetles, both, or neither, which demonstrated that Pharaxonotha beetles are effective pollinators of Zamia incognita and that wind does not play any role as pollen vector. By following beetles marked with fluorescent dyes and directly observing beetle movements on and into female cones and micropyles, we confirmed that Pharaxonotha sp. is the effective pollinator of Z. incognita. The beetles traveled a maximum dispersal distance from a male to female cone of nearly 22 m and a minimum distance of 5 m. We found Pharaxonotha beetles in male cones, where they complete their life cycle. Cones produce heat in a circadian pattern associated with the elongation of the cones and pollen shedding. The increase in cones’ temperature appears to play an important role in beetle attraction. We suggest that pollination droplets on the micropyles would be a reward to pollinators. We also discuss the relationship of this Zamia species with other insects, which have important consequences for the conservation of web interactions.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Gloria Montoya and Gedwin Valencia for their unconditional support and help in processing data. Cornelio Bota, Camilo Flórez, Laura Gómez Mesa, Miguel González, Laura Marín, David Taborda, and Yeison Montoya provided invaluable assistance in the field. Yeison Montoya and Cornelio Bota enhanced this manuscript with their field observations, and Cornelio allowed us to use one of his photographs. Gustavo Londoño and Juan Luis Parra kindly lent us the temperature recording equipment. We thank María José Sanín, Henry Arenas-Castro, Sergio A. Muñoz-Gómez, Edwin Hurtado, Nicolás González-Castro, Yenny Correa-Carmona, Alejandra Duque, Federico Tamayo, and Arturo Aristizábal for constructive input; Cornelio Bota and Cristina López-Gallego for valuable comments on the manuscript; and Sheela Turbek for her generous final English review. William Tang, Irene Terry, Robert Roemer, and Shayla Salzman provided important recommendations at Cycad 2015. We are grateful to our reviewers for their patient English review and important comments. We also thank the Fundación Alejandro Ángel Escobar for financial support through the Colombia Biodiversa Grant and the Biology program at Universidad CES for supporting our laboratory and fieldwork. Diana María Carmona and Ahída Paulina Herrera provided logistical assistance through the Sciences labs at Universidad CES. Marta Wolff and Grupo de Entomología de la Universidad de Antioquia (GEUA) kindly provided laboratory resources during the initial stages of this work, and the Invertebrate Collection at the University of Puerto Rico allowed us to use their photography equipment. Finally, we express our gratitude to all of the people at La Hacienda Santa Bárbara, from Maceo, for their kind help with logistics in the field. This manuscript is dedicated to the Magdalena Medio region—may the magic of its forests survive the people indifference and continue telling stories.

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  1. Programa de Biología, Universidad CES-EIA, Calle 10 A No. 22-04, Medellín, Colombia

    Wendy A. Valencia-Montoya, Dino Tuberquia, Pablo Andrés Guzmán & Juliana Cardona-Duque

  2. Grupo Biología CES-EIA, Medellín, Colombia

    Dino Tuberquia, Pablo Andrés Guzmán & Juliana Cardona-Duque

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  1. Wendy A. Valencia-Montoya
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  2. Dino Tuberquia
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Correspondence to Wendy A. Valencia-Montoya.

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Valencia-Montoya, W.A., Tuberquia, D., Guzmán, P.A. et al. Pollination of the cycad Zamia incognita A. Lindstr. & Idárraga by Pharaxonotha beetles in the Magdalena Medio Valley, Colombia: a mutualism dependent on a specific pollinator and its significance for conservation. Arthropod-Plant Interactions 11, 717–729 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11829-017-9511-y

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