Abstract
Oil-producing flowers have evolved specialized traits along with the ability to secrete oil as reward, leading to the expectation of a narrow relationship between floral architecture and oil-collecting behaviours of pollinators. Krameriaceae flowers have a showy calyx and a less conspicuous dimorphic corolla modified into a pair of elaiophores that secrete the oil, and a group of petaloid petals that, among oil-collecting bees, are used by only Centris (Centridini) during the oil gathering. A manipulative experiment consisted of excising these floral parts to test the prediction that these structures contribute to successful oil gathering by the bees and plant reproduction. We surveyed the oil-collecting bees associated with the Krameria grandiflora A. St.-Hil. across its distribution range and performed the experiment in populations associated with two different oil-collecting bee taxa—Caenonomada (Tapinotaspidini) and Centris, the main pollinators. Although predicted to mediate the floral mechanical fit with Centris, the absence of the petaloid petals had a neutral effect on both oil-gathering behaviour and seed set, when comparing Caenonomada and Centris. A negative effect on these responses was found when the elaiophores were excised, indicating that these glands have greater importance than the petals related to the mutual fit between flowers and pollinators. However, the petaloid petals seemed to function jointly with the sepals in pollinator attraction. When the sepals were excised, only Centris behaviour was affected, but not that of Caenonomada, indicating potentially divergent selective pressures on the calyx. In addition, we provide a novel oil host plant for several oil-collecting bees.
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Acknowledgements
We thank ICMBio/SISBIO, for allowing us to conduct the study in the Conservation Units, and the Corumbá City Council, for letting us to work at the Piraputangas Park. We also thank Dr. Felipe Vivallo (National Museum/UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), for identifying the specimens of Centridini, Dr. Antônio Aguiar (UnB, BrasÃlia, Brazil), for identifying the specimens of Tapinotaspidini, Dr. Sheina Koffler (IB/USP, São Paulo, Brazil), for the helpful discussions on the research, MSc. Felipe Libran Embid (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany), for helping with the fieldwork, two anonymous reviewers and the editor, for the constructive criticism and support to the manuscript. We are grateful for the awarded scholarship grants and financial support for LTC and IA by the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP, 2013/00181-5 and 04/00274-4).
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L.T.C. and I.A. conceived the general outline of the study; L.T.C. designed the methodology, collected the samples with the support of C.B.D.S.A., and led the analysis and writing of the manuscript with substantial contributions by A.T. and I.A. All the authors contributed critically to the drafts and gave final approval for publication.
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Carneiro, L.T., André, C.B.D.S., Takahasi, A. et al. Interactions between oil-collecting bees and Krameria grandiflora (Krameriaceae) with emphasis on the role of specialized floral traits in the mutual fit. Arthropod-Plant Interactions 13, 213–226 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11829-019-09689-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11829-019-09689-w