Fine-tuned bee-flower coevolutionary state hidden within multiple pollination interactions.
Relationships between flowers and pollinators are generally considered cases of mutualism since both agents gain benefits. Fine-tuned adaptations are usually found in the form of strict one-to-one coevolution between species. Many insect pollinators are, however, considered generalists, visiting numerous kinds of flowers, and many flower species (angiosperms) are also considered generalists, visited by many insect pollinators. We here describe a fine-tuned coevolutionary state of a flower-visiting bee that collects both nectar and pollen from an early spring flower visited by multiple pollinators. Detailed morphology of the bee proboscis is shown to be finely adjusted to the floral morphology and nectar production of the flower. Behavioral observations also confirm the precision of this mutualism. Our results suggest that a fine-tuned one-to-one coevolutionary state between a flower species and a pollinator species might be common, but frequently overlooked, in multiple flower-pollinator interactions.
Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Hachioji, Tokyo, 192-0397 Japan.
Akira
A
Shimizu
Department of Environmental Sciences, Tokyo Gakugei University, Tokyo, 184-8501 Japan.
Ikumi
I
Dohzono
Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Hachioji, Tokyo, 192-0397 Japan.
Masayoshi
M
Nakaji
Department of Biology, University of California, Riverside, CA, 92521 USA.
Derek A
DA
Roff
Department of Biological Sciences and Center for Water and the Environment, California State University, Chico, CA, 95929 USA.
Donald G
DG
Miller
1] Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Hachioji, Tokyo, 192-0397 Japan [2] Department of Zoology, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 606-8502 Japan.
Sara
S
Osato
Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Hachioji, Tokyo, 192-0397 Japan.
Takuya
T
Yajima
Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Hachioji, Tokyo, 192-0397 Japan.
Shûhei
S
Niitsu
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo, Japan.
Nozomu
N
Utsugi
Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Hachioji, Tokyo, 192-0397 Japan.
Takashi
T
Sugawara
1] Department of Mathematical and Systems Engineering, Shizuoka University, Hamamatsu, 432-8561 Japan [2] Department of Environmental and Forest Biology, State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, New York, 13210 USA [3] Marine Biosystems Research Center, Chiba University, 1 Uchiura, Kamogawa, Chiba-ken, 299-5502 Japan.
Jin
J
Yoshimura
D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000818:Animals; D001516:Bees / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology*; D005075:Biological Evolution; D035264:Flowers; D031239:Lonicera / Q000196:embryology*; D010802:Phylogeny; D057048:Plant Nectar; D011058:Pollen; D054817:Pollination / Q000502:physiology*; D013559:Symbiosis
D057048:Plant Nectar