The mechanism of pollinator specificity between two sympatric fig varieties: a combination of olfactory signals and contact cues.

ABSTRACT:

Background and aims

Pollinator specificity facilitates reproductive isolation among plants, and mechanisms that generate specificity influence species boundaries. Long-range volatile attractants, in combination with morphological co-adaptations, are generally regarded as being responsible for maintaining extreme host specificity among the fig wasps that pollinate fig trees, but increasing evidence for breakdowns in specificity is accumulating. The basis of host specificity was examined among two host-specific Ceratosolen fig wasps that pollinate two sympatric varieties of Ficus semicordata, together with the consequences for the plants when pollinators entered the alternative host variety.

Methods

The compositions of floral scents from receptive figs of the two varieties and

SUBMITTER: Wang G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3555521 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature