Do larger pollinators have higher pollination efficiency for a
generalist plant Hibiscus mutabilis?
- Xiaoqing Shi,
- Bin Zheng,
- Xiaoli Liu,
- Qiumei Quan,
- Yunxiang Li
Xiaoqing Shi
Chengdu Botanical Garden (Chengdu Institute of Park City Plant Research)
Author ProfileXiaoli Liu
Chengdu Botanical Garden (Chengdu Institute of Park City Plant Research)
Author ProfileAbstract
Many insect species provide pollination services for flowering plants.
However, the pollination efficiency of various pollinator species varies
greatly due to differences in body size, foraging behavior, and
visitation rate. Here, we investigated a generalist plant Hibiscus
mutabilis, and we compared the body size, visitation rate, and
pollination efficiency of five pollinator species. Our observations
revealed that the pollination efficiency of the moth species was
relatively lower than all bee species. The body length of five
pollinator species increased the amount of transferred pollen, and
larger bees tended to remove more pollen from anthers and deposit more
pollen on stigmas, resulting in higher pollination efficiency. However,
there was no correlation between the intertegular distance and
pollination efficiency of visitors in H. mutabilis. Body length may be a
better index of body size than intertegular distance.