Flower visits of cockroaches (Insecta: Blattodea) in the IberianPeninsula: Are they neglected pollinators?
Although several insect orders have been deeply studied in plant–animal interactions(e.g. pollination) cockroaches have traditionally been ignored in taxonomic and eco-logical studies. However, they could be playing a role in the reproduction of severalplants. To date, 8 plant species use cockroache...
| Autores: | , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2023 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad de Sevilla (US) |
| Repositorio: | idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:idus.us.es:11441/183092 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/11441/183092 https://doi.org/10.1111/jen.13157 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Cockroach ecology Colour perception European pollinators Interaction network Phenology Pollination syndrome |
| Sumario: | Although several insect orders have been deeply studied in plant–animal interactions(e.g. pollination) cockroaches have traditionally been ignored in taxonomic and eco-logical studies. However, they could be playing a role in the reproduction of severalplants. To date, 8 plant species use cockroaches as a pollination agent. In our study, wehave reviewed 2865 records from citizen science platforms and our own data from theIberian Peninsula to find flower visits made by cockroaches. We have detected 51 in-teraction records involving at least 8 different cockroach species and 35 plant species.Furthermore, nearly half of the detected cockroaches carried pollen on various partsof their bodies. These insects were found to mainly visit white, yellow and pink flow-ers from Apiaceae, Asteraceae and Cistaceae plant families (among others) mainly inlate spring and early summer. However, for the confirmation of effective pollination,new studies must be carried out. Additionally, although the existence of pollinationsyndrome is far from being understood, we provide new insights that could help shedsome light on this unknown relationship. Here we provide the first approximation ofcockroach floral perception and we have detected that white flowers show the bestfit and higher conspicousness to cockroach colour vision, as suggested for other ne-glected pollinator insects. |
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