Authors: Renee M Borges Vinita Gowda Merry Zacharias
Publish Date: 2003/07/04
Volume: 136, Issue: 4, Pages: 571-573
Abstract
In lowdensity butterflypollinated Mussaenda frondosa Rubiaceae flowers attract pollinators at short distances while conspicuous nonrewarding accessory bracts are detectable at long distances by longranging pollinators such as the birdwing butterfly Troides minos that did not detect flowerbearing plants in the absence of these bracts However even in the absence of flowers the white ultravioletabsorbing bracts attracted butterflies that visited flowerless plants Although flower visits by shortranging territorial butterflies declined significantly on removal of bracts they did not cease completely Nectarrobbing carpenter bees and birds did not change their behaviour following bract removal Bract removal caused a significant decline in fruit set indicating their importance as visual signals to pollinatorsWe thank Andreas Gumbert for the spectral reflectance measurements Veena CP for field assistance Lars Chittka Andreas Gumbert Natalie Hempel de Ibarra Almut Kelber Peter Kevan Michiyo Kinoshita Doekele Stavenga and Misha Vorobyev for useful suggestions and Almut Kelber Natalie Hempel de Ibarra and the reviewers for valuable comments on the manuscript This research was funded by the Department of Science and Technology Government of India
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