Occurrence of florivory in edge species in an Atlantic Forest fragment
The relationship between flowers and floral visitors can be mutualistic or antagonistic. Florivory is defined as floral damage to reproductive and/or sterile attributes. Some studies claim that floral attractants for pollinators also attract florivores. Therefore, the objective of this study is to a...
| Autores: | , , , |
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| Tipo de documento: | artigo |
| Estado: | Versão publicada |
| Data de publicação: | 2025 |
| País: | Brasil |
| Recursos: | Universidade Estadual de Alagoas (UNEAL) |
| Repositório: | Diversitas Journal |
| Idioma: | português inglês |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ojs.diversitasjournal.com.br:article/2654 |
| Acesso em linha: | https://diversitasjournal.com.br/diversitas_journal/article/view/2654 |
| Access Level: | Acceso aberto |
| Palavra-chave: | Antagonismo floral Atratividade floral Herbivoria floral Floral antagonism Floral attractiveness Floral herbivory |
| Resumo: | The relationship between flowers and floral visitors can be mutualistic or antagonistic. Florivory is defined as floral damage to reproductive and/or sterile attributes. Some studies claim that floral attractants for pollinators also attract florivores. Therefore, the objective of this study is to analyze the occurrence of florivory in species from the edge of the Atlantic Forest, identifying the possible floral attributes associated with the attractiveness to florivores. Seven species were analyzed: Tridax procumbens, Sphagneticola trilobata, Turnera subulata, Richardia grandiflora, Momordica charantia, Chrysanthellum and Commelina erecta. Through direct observation, information was collected on floral attributes: color, shape, resource, symmetry and pollination unit. Visits were made to record the number of damaged flowers. All damaged flowers were photographed and the images submitted to the ImageJ program to calculate the consumed floral area. Flowers with inflorescences arranged in capitulum, yellow placement and UV reflection were more attractive to florivores. There was a weak correlation between the size of the flowers and the damaged floral area, in addition to a weak correlation between the number of flowers in the patches and the number of flowers damaged by the florivores. These data demonstrate the inefficiency of the display effect in reducing florivory and evidence that other traits besides floral size are attracting herbivores to the studied species. |
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