Biodiversity Data Journal :
Data Paper (Biosciences)
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Corresponding author: Gene Sheng Tung (gene.tung@gmail.com)
Academic editor: Yasen Mutafchiev
Received: 03 Nov 2020 | Accepted: 17 Dec 2020 | Published: 26 Jan 2021
© 2021 Joe Chun Chia Huang, Yun Chen Hsieh, Sheng Shan Lu, Wen Chi Yeh, Jia Yuan Liang, Chien Jung Lin, Gene Sheng Tung
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Huang JCC, Hsieh YC, Lu SS, Yeh WC, Liang JY, Lin CJ, Tung GS (2021) Flower-visiting insects of genus Melastoma (Myrtales: Melastomataceae) at the Fushan Botanical Garden, Taiwan. Biodiversity Data Journal 9: e60315. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.9.e60315
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We investigated the diversity and behaviour of insects that visit flowers of four native Melastoma (Family Melastomataceae) species of Taiwan and a horticultural hybrid Melastoma species at the Fushan Botanical Garden, Taiwan biweekly from May to August 2020. Visits of flower-visiting insects were classified into seven behavioural categories, based on the insects' behaviour and positions on the flower. The data are further assigned into four insect-flower interactions, namely pollination, herbivory, commensalism and neutralism. Our goal is to provide baseline data of insect-plant interactions of Melastoma, which is a common, but understudied plant genus in the country.
A total of 1,289 visits to flowers were recorded by at least 63 insect morphospecies belonging to seven orders. The number of insect species recorded per Melastoma species ranged from 9 to 39. Visiting, sonication and passing were the three most frequently recorded types of behaviour, collectively accounting for 90.2% (n = 1,240) of the total observations. Pollination was the most dominant insect-flower interaction, accounting for 70.2% of the total observations, followed by neutralism (20.0%), herbivory (6.3%) and commensalism (3.5%). Sweat bees of the genera Lasioglossum and Maculonomia (Hymenoptera: Halictidae) are considered key pollinators to Melastoma species in Fushan Botanical Garden, based on their high number of visits and sonication behaviour. Our study provides the first list of insects that visit the flowers of all Taiwan's known Melastoma species and description of their interactions with the plants.
buzz pollination, Lasioglossum, Maculonomia, Melastoma kudoi, sonication
With over 5,000 species, Melastomataceae represents one of the largest Angiosperm families distributed in the subtropical and tropical regions around the world (
There are 18 species belonging to 12 genera of Melastomataceae in Taiwan (
To date, only one study on the pollination biology of one Melastoma species, M. candidum, in Taiwan has been published (
Project of Future Plants
Established in 1990, Fushan Botanical Garden (FBG) (
Melastoma flower visiting insect survey
Data on the diversity of insects that visited the flowers of all Melastoma species were obtained biweekly at FBG from 7 May 2020 to 19 August 2020. Melastoma species included M. malabathricum L., M. candidum D. Don, M. kudoi Sasaki and M. scaberrima (Hayata). We primarily follow the taxonomy of
Behaviour and insect-flower interaction classification
Types of behaviour of insects visiting flowers of Melastoma species were recorded by direct observations in the field. Further confirmations were made, based on pictures and videos taken using phone cameras. Seven behaviour categories were defined, depending on how insects interact with the flower and the location on the flower where the behaviour occurred, namely sonication, visiting, stamen herbivory, petal herbivory, recycling, drinking and passing (Table
The interactions, definitions and expected effects of the seven types of behaviour of insects that were observed to visit the flowers of Melastoma species. “+”, “-” and “0” signs denote positive, negative and neutral effects, respectively, of each type of behaviour on the insect (before the left slash) and the plant (after the left slash).
Insect-flower interaction |
Type of behaviour |
Sign of expected effect |
Definition |
Pollination |
|||
Sonication |
+/+ |
Emit buzz sounds when contacting stamens or pistil, producing vibrations that attempt to expel pollen out from anthers |
|
Visiting |
0/0, 0/+ |
Contact any part of pistil and stamens without consuming and collecting materials and cause no obvious damage to the reproductive organs |
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Herbivory |
|||
Stamen herbivory |
+/- |
Damage stamens, but not the anthers |
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Petal herbivory |
+/- |
Damage petals |
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Commensalism |
|||
Recycling |
+/0 |
Consume pollens expelled by other insects from the flower and water, usually on the petals, but occasionally at the female and male organs |
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Drinking |
+/0 |
Consume secretion from the flower |
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Neutralism | |||
Passing |
0/0 |
Contact only the petals without consuming and collecting materials and cause no obvious damage to the petals |
Fushan Botanical Garden, north-eastern Taiwan
24.755 and 24.755 Latitude; 121.595 and 121.595 Longitude.
63 insect morphospecies belonging to seven orders that are associated with five Melastoma plant species, including a horticultural hybrid.
Rank | Scientific Name | Common Name |
---|---|---|
class | Insecta | insect |
order | Coleoptera | beetle |
order | Hymenoptera | bee, wasp, hornet |
order | Diptera | fly, midge |
order | Hemiptera | bug, plant hopper |
order | Lepidoptera | moth, butterfly, caterpillar |
order | Blattodea | cockroach |
order | Orthoptera | grasshopper, cricket |
2020-05-07 through 2020-08-19
This resource (
Column label | Column description |
---|---|
occurrenceID | An identifier for the Occurrence (as opposed to a particular digital record of the occurrence). In the absence of a persistent global unique identifier, construct one from a combination of identifiers in the record that will most closely make the occurrenceID globally unique. |
basisOfRecord | The specific nature of the data record. |
eventDate | The date-time or interval during which an Event occurred. For occurrences, this is the date-time when the event was recorded. Not suitable for a time in a geological context. |
country | The name of the country or major administrative unit in which the Location occurs |
county | The full, unabbreviated name of the next smaller administrative region than stateProvince (county, shire, department etc.) in which the Location occurs. |
municipality | The full, unabbreviated name of the next smaller administrative region than county (city, municipality etc.) in which the Location occurs. Do not use this term for a nearby named place that does not contain the actual location. |
locality | The specific description of the place. Less specific geographic information can be provided in other geographic terms (higherGeography, continent, country, stateProvince, county, municipality, waterBody, island, islandGroup). This term may contain information modified from the original to correct perceived errors or standardise the description. Comments |
minimumElevationInMetres | The lower limit of the range of elevation (altitude, usually above sea level), in metres. |
decimalLatitude | The geographic latitude (in decimal degrees, using the spatial reference system given in geodeticDatum) of the geographic centre of a Location. Positive values are north of the Equator, negative values are south of it. Legal values lie between -90 and 90, inclusive. |
decimalLongitude | The geographic longitude (in decimal degrees, using the spatial reference system given in geodeticDatum) of the geographic centre of a Location. Positive values are east of the Greenwich Meridian, negative values are west of it. Legal values lie between -180 and 180, inclusive. |
geodeticDatum | The ellipsoid, geodetic datum or spatial reference system (SRS) upon which the geographic coordinates given in decimalLatitude and decimalLongitude are based. |
coordinateUncertaintyInMetres | The horizontal distance (in metres) from the given decimalLatitude and decimalLongitude describing the smallest circle containing the whole of the Location. Leave the value empty if the uncertainty is unknown, cannot be estimated or is not applicable (because there are no coordinates). Zero is not a valid value for this term. |
scientificName | The full scientific name, with authorship and date information if known. When forming part of an Identification, this should be the name in the lowest level taxonomic rank that can be determined. This term should not contain identification qualifications, which should instead be supplied in the IdentificationQualifier term. |
kingdom | The full scientific name of the kingdom in which the taxon is classified. |
phylum | The full scientific name of the phylum or division in which the taxon is classified. |
class | The full scientific name of the class in which the taxon is classified. |
order | The full scientific name of the order in which the taxon is classified. |
family | The full scientific name of the family in which the taxon is classified. |
genus | The full scientific name of the genus in which the taxon is classified. |
specificEpithet | The name of the first or species epithet of the scientificName. |
infraspecificEpithet | The name of the lowest or terminal infraspecific epithet of the scientificName, excluding any rank designation. |
taxonRank | The taxonomic rank of the most specific name in the scientificName. |
identificationRemarks | Comments or notes about the Identification. |
lifeStage | The age class or life stage of the biological individual(s) at the time the Occurrence was recorded. |
vernacularName | A common or vernacular name. |
associatedTaxa | A list (concatenated and separated) of identifiers or names of taxa and their associations with the Occurrence. |
behaviour | A description of the behaviour shown by the subject at the time the Occurrence was recorded. |
fieldNumber | An identifier given to the event in the field. Often serves as a link between field notes and the Event. |
catalogNumber | An identifier (preferably unique) for the record within the dataset or collection. |
institutionCode | The name (or acronym) in use by the institution having custody of the object(s) or information referred to in the record. |
recordedBy | A list (concatenated and separated) of names of people, groups or organisations responsible for recording the original Occurrence. The primary collector or observer, especially one who applies a personal identifier (recordNumber), should be listed first. |
Results
A total of 1,298 insect visits were observed, which generated 911 occurrence records of flower-visiting insects, of which more than one-third of the visits were made to the horticultural hybrid species, Melastoma kudoi x Melastoma scaberrima (n = 437). Of the remaining observations, 12-19% were recorded for each of the remaining species/forms and only 3.8% of the observations were recorded for M. scaberrima. Around 15.6% and 56.3% of the insects sampled could be identified to species and genus, respectively and the rest are identified to family or higher levels (Table
Diversity of flower-visiting insects and the accumulative number of visits for each Melastoma species.
M. malabathricum |
M. candidum purple-flowered form |
M. candidum white-flowered form |
M. kudoi |
M. scaberrima |
Hybrid |
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Blattodea |
||||||
Blaberoidea |
||||||
Ectobiidae |
||||||
Symploce sp. |
1 |
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Coleoptera |
||||||
Chrysomeloidea |
||||||
Chrysomelidae |
||||||
Arthrotus tricolor |
1 |
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Basilepta varians |
3 |
|||||
Lagria sp. |
1 |
|||||
Monolepta hieroglyphica |
1 |
|||||
Monolepta signata |
5 |
5 |
1 |
26 |
||
Nonarthra chengi |
1 |
|||||
Nonarthra sp. |
1 |
|||||
Theopea sauteri |
2 |
1 |
6 |
|||
Unidentified leaf beetle |
7 |
4 |
1 |
4 |
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Elateroidea |
||||||
Elateridae |
||||||
Elateridae gen. sp. |
2 |
|||||
Scarabaeoidea |
||||||
Scarabaeidae |
||||||
Cetoniinae gen. sp. |
3 |
|||||
Popillia livida |
4 |
|||||
Popillia taiwana |
1 |
2 |
||||
Scarabaeidae gen. sp. |
1 |
2 |
||||
Tenebrionoidea |
||||||
Mordellidae |
||||||
Mordellidae gen. sp. |
1 |
|||||
Unidentified coleopteran |
1 |
1 |
||||
Diptera |
||||||
Ephydroidea |
||||||
Drosophilidae |
||||||
Drosophilidae gen sp. |
3 |
|||||
Muscoidea |
||||||
Anthomyiidae |
||||||
Anthomyia illocata |
1 |
|||||
Oestroidea |
||||||
Calliphoridae |
||||||
Calliphoridae gen. sp. |
3 |
1 |
13 |
|||
Chrysomya sp.1 |
5 |
4 |
2 |
2 |
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Chrysomya sp.2 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
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Sciaroidea |
||||||
Sciaridae |
||||||
Sciaridae gen. sp. |
2 |
|||||
Syrphoidea |
||||||
Syrphidae |
||||||
Episyrphus balteatus |
1 |
|||||
Paragus sp. |
1 |
|||||
Sphaerophoria sp. |
1 |
|||||
Syrphidae gen. sp. |
9 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
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Tephritoidea |
||||||
Tephritidae |
||||||
Spathulina acroleuca |
1 |
1 |
||||
Unidentified dipteran |
8 |
4 |
2 |
2 |
8 |
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Hemiptera |
||||||
Coreoidea |
||||||
Coreidae |
||||||
Coreidae sp. |
1 |
|||||
Fulgoroidea |
||||||
Unidentified planthopper |
1 |
|||||
Lygaeoidea |
||||||
Geocoridae |
||||||
Geocoris varius |
1 |
|||||
Miroidea |
||||||
Miridae |
||||||
Eurystylus sp. |
1 |
1 |
||||
Pilophorus formosanus |
2 |
6 |
||||
Miridae gen. sp. |
2 |
1 |
||||
Reduvoidea |
||||||
Reduviidae |
1 |
|||||
Reduviidae gen. sp. |
1 |
|||||
Unidentified bug |
5 |
3 |
1 |
|||
Hymenoptera |
||||||
Apoidea |
||||||
Apidae |
||||||
Amegilla calceifera |
1 |
|||||
Amegilla sp. |
5 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
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Amegilla urens |
2 |
1 |
||||
Apis cerana |
6 |
4 |
||||
Bombus eximius/flavescens |
3 |
1 |
2 |
4 |
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Bombus flavescens |
1 |
|||||
Ceratina pulchripes |
4 |
2 |
||||
Ceratina sauteri |
2 |
|||||
Ceratina sp. |
4 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
||
Xylocopa dejeanii sauteri |
1 |
2 |
||||
Xylocopa rufipes |
12 |
|||||
Xylocopa tranquebarorum |
8 |
7 |
1 |
4 |
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Halictidae |
||||||
Lasioglossum formosae |
8 |
2 |
5 |
1 |
2 |
|
Lasioglossum scaphonotum |
2 |
|||||
Lasioglossum subopacum subopacum |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
|
Lasioglossum sp. |
15 |
33 |
92 |
31 |
5 |
105 |
Maculonomia planiventris |
1 |
|||||
Maculonomia proxima |
2 |
1 |
2 |
|||
Maculonomia sp. |
1 |
50 |
31 |
63 |
15 |
162 |
Megachilidae |
||||||
Megachile rufovittata |
1 |
|||||
Megachile sp. |
2 |
|||||
Vespidae |
||||||
Vespa velutina |
2 |
2 |
||||
Vespidae gen. sp. |
1 |
|||||
Unidentified bee |
11 |
1 |
4 |
|||
Formicoidea |
||||||
Formicidae |
||||||
Crematogaster sp. |
17 |
4 |
1 |
|||
Formicidae gen. sp. |
22 |
32 |
23 |
27 |
12 |
51 |
Myrmicinae sp. |
1 |
1 |
||||
Polyrhachis sp. |
1 |
1 |
4 |
1 |
7 |
|
Tetraponera thagatensis |
1 |
|||||
Ichneumonoidea |
||||||
Unidentified parasitoid wasp |
1 |
7 |
7 |
17 |
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Braconidae |
||||||
Braconidae gen. sp. |
1 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
||
Ichneumonidae |
||||||
Ichneumonidae sp. |
1 |
|||||
Unidentified hymenopteran |
1 |
|||||
Lepidoptera |
||||||
Arctiidae |
||||||
Arctiidae gen. sp. |
1 |
|||||
Erebidae |
||||||
Euproctis sp. |
2 |
2 |
7 |
1 |
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Noctuidae |
||||||
Noctuidae gen. sp. |
1 |
|||||
Papilionoidea |
||||||
Hesperiidae |
||||||
Borbo cinnara |
1 |
|||||
Hesperiidae gen. sp. |
1 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
3 |
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Lycaenidae |
||||||
Lycaenidae gen. sp. |
1 |
|||||
Nymphalidae |
||||||
Athyma selenophora |
1 |
|||||
Papilionidae |
||||||
Graphium sarpedon |
1 |
|||||
Unidentified butterfly |
9 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
2 |
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Orthoptera |
||||||
Unidentified orthopteran |
1 |
1 |
||||
Acridoidea |
||||||
Unidentified grasshopper |
2 |
5 |
||||
Acrididae |
||||||
Xenocatantops brachycerus |
3 |
|||||
Tettigonioidea |
||||||
Unidentified bush cricket |
5 |
|||||
Tettigoniidae |
||||||
Conocephalus melas |
3 |
|||||
Mecopoda sp. |
2 |
|||||
Mecopodinae gen. sp. |
3 |
Visiting, sonication and passing were the three most commonly-recorded types of behaviour, comprising 37.3%, 32.8% and 20.0%, respectively, of the total observations of behaviour (n = 1,240). The other four behaviour categories only accounted for less than 10.0% of the total observations. With 870 observations, pollination was the most dominant insect-flower interaction recorded on Melastoma species, followed by neutralism (n = 248), herbivory (n = 78) and commensalism (n = 44).
Pollinating insects that demonstrated sonication behaviour were exclusively bees in families Apidae and Halictidae (Hymenoptera: Superfamily Apoidea). Amongst all sonicating bees, sweat bees of genera Lasioglossum and Maculonomia were the two most common taxa, accounting for 89% of all flower visits (Fig.
Discussion
This study provides the first checklist of flower-visiting insects to all Melastoma species in Taiwan with an emphasis on insect-plant interactions, based on our field observations. Our data show a diverse flower-visiting insect fauna of at least 63 morphospecies which is higher than observations in similar studies on Melastoma (
Despite the commonality in the dependence of buzz-pollinating bees, our results reveal a different bee pollinator composition to other studies on Melastoma plants, even for the same plant species.
The discrepancy between studies could be explained by the variations in local bee fauna. Landscape features (
The occurrence of herbivores and their damage to flower structures could supress the pollination process in several ways. First, complete loss of stamens and pollens inside certainly terminate the further chances of pollen transferring.
While reproduction biology is recognised as an essential part of plant conservation, identifying key pollinators and pollination mechanisms becomes fundamental (
This study is supported financially by the Project of Future Plants to GST. We thank Yider Hsu and nursery staff of Fushan Research Center for various level of support to the field work and experimental setting-up, Ming-Jer Yeh for assisting mapping, Le Tuan Quan for sharing insect pictures, Melissa Jean-Yi Liu of TAIBIF for technical support of data publication to GBIF and Tian-Chuan Hsu for suggestions of Melastoma taxonomy. We also appreciate the valuable comments from the editors and reviewers to both the dataset and manuscript.
JCCH and GST designed the experiment. GST acquired funding. JCCH, CJL and GST set-up and maintained the experimental plants in the nursery. JCCH, YCH and SSL contributed to fieldwork. JCCH, YCH, WCY and SSL identified insect samples. YCH prepared the specimens. JCCH, YCH and JYL cleaned and formatted the data. JCCH wrote the first draft. YCH, SSL, YCH, JYL, CJL and GST are the joint co-authors with equal contribution.