Nested structure is dependent on visitor sex in the flower‒visitor networks in Kyoto, Japan.

ABSTRACT: The characteristics of flower‒visitor networks, comprised of multiple species interacting with each other, predict ecological and evolutionary processes. Intraspecific and interspecific variations in interaction patterns should affect network structures. Because female and male visitors usually differ in flower-visiting patterns due to mating strategy, visitor sex should affect nestedness, in which specialist species interact with a subset of species that interact with generalist species. I hypothesized that a network of male visitors and flowering plants would be more nested than a female network because males are less picky about which flowers they visit. To examine the effect of visitor sex on nestedness, I used museum specimens of insects and built 11 flower-visitor species networks, e

SUBMITTER: Kishi S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8939293 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature