Can I read The significance of ant and plant traits for ant pollination in Leporella fimbriata on EtoBox?

The significance of ant and plant traits for ant pollination in Leporella fimbriata by Rod Peakall; Craig J. Angus; Andrew J. Beattie is a Environmental Science article available to read on EtoBox.

What is The significance of ant and plant traits for ant pollination in Leporella fimbriata about?

Ant metapleural glands secrete surface antibiotics that affect pollen as well as bacteria and fungi. This may be one reason why ant pollination is rare. It is predicted that pollination by ants is possible only in the presence of certain ant and/or plant traits. Two traits are investigated; first, absence of the metapleural glands, and second, the presence of stigmatic secretions that insulate pollen from the ant integument. The pollinator of the orchid Leporella fimbriata is the ant Myrmecia urens. Only one caste is involved, the winged males, and they differ significantly from the queen and worker castes in that they do not possess metapleural glands. This paper reports experiments which test for differential effects on pollen between the males and other castes and evaluates the importance of stigmatic secretions. The results show that the absence of metapleural glands makes no difference as all three castes have strong disruptive effect on pollen artificially applied to the integument. However, during pollination the orchid secures the pollen mass to the ant surface by stigmatic secretions and normal pollen function, fruit production and seed set occur. It appears that both ant

Who reads The significance of ant and plant traits for ant pollination in Leporella fimbriata?

Author

Rod Peakall; Craig J. Angus; Andrew J. Beattie

Publisher

Springer-Verlag; Springer Verlag; Springer Science and Business Media LLC (ISSN 0029-8549)

Published

1990

Language

EN

Field

Environmental Science (Physical Sciences)