In this research, we determined: 1) the insect guilds visiting the flower heads of five Asteraceae species (Eupatorium petiolare Mociño ex De Candolle, Senecio praecox [Cavanilles] De Candolle, Dahlia coccinea Cavanilles, Tagetes lunulata Ortega, and Verbesina virgata Cavanilles); 2) the role of floral phenology and floral morphology on species composition and frequency of visits of different insect order; and 3) the diurnal schedules of anthophilous visitors and their relationship to temperature and relative humidity. Collections and observations of floral visitors for each species were made over 24 h per day. The five Asteraceae were visited by 137 Diptera, Hymenoptera, Coleoptera, and Lepidoptera species. Tagetes lunulata had the highest species richness of floral visitors (41 species), while V. virgata had the lowest (23 species). Apis mellifera L. (Hymenoptera) was the only visitor found visiting all five species. Species composition of insect visitors was closely related to plant phenology. Order-level frequency of visits was closely related to floral morphology. Two separate principal component analyses based on frequency of visits and floral morphology showed similar plant species groupings. Two groups of insects (Formicidae and Coleoptera) and two floral traits (ligulae length and presence of a cylindrical-campanulate involucre), respectively, were the variables determining these groupings. The highest frequency of anthophilous visitors coincided with the highest temperatures and the lowest relative humidity levels on flowers of all species, except S. praecox. The combination of diurnal activity and guild visitor analyses in this study showed the importance of including both characteristics in pollination studies.
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1 April 2004
Floral Visitor Guilds of Five Allochronic Flowering Asteraceous Species in a Xeric Community in Central Mexico
Dulce María Figueroa-Castro,
Zenón Cano-Santana
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Asteraceae
floral visitors
similarity indexes
temporal variation
xeric community