Abstract
Most estimations of the pollination efficiency of insects have been based on observation by the naked human eye. However, insect behaviors are often too rapid to analyze sufficiently this way. Here we demonstrate the use of high-speed cameras to analyze the fine-scale behaviors of Macroglossum pyrrhosticta, Xylocopa appendiculata, and Papilio dehaanii when visiting Clerodendrum trichotomum. The fine-scale nectar drinking time, number of contacts with anthers and/or stigmas, and frequencies of body part contact with anthers and/or stigmas differed significantly among pollinator species. Pollination efficiency was not equal among pollinators. In addition, M. pyrrhosticta made the least number of contacts with anthers and/or stigmas even though it showed the highest visitation frequency. These results demonstrate that when examined from the viewpoint of rapid visitation behaviors, pollination dynamics differ among pollinator species, and flower visits and pollination rates are not equal.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Kôji Sasakawa for useful comments on the manuscript and statistics. We also thank Joel H. Nitta for revising the English manuscript. This study was supported in part by funding from the Fujiwara Natural History Foundation to RLS, the Environment Research and Technology Development Fund (S-9) of the Ministry of the Environment, Japan to SIM, and the Environment Research and Technology Development Fund (D-1008) of the MOE and the National BioResource Project of MEXT to MI.
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Our experiments comply with the current laws in Japan.
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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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Communicated by M. Giurfa
Appendix
Supplementary movie S1 Movie of a visit of M. pyrrhosticta to the pistillate flower of C. trichotomum. This movie was recorded over 1 s. In this movie, M. pyrrhosticta did not contact the stigma
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Sakamoto, R.L., Morinaga, SI., Ito, M. et al. Fine-scale flower-visiting behavior revealed by using a high-speed camera. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 66, 669–674 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-011-1314-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-011-1314-z