title: Flies as pollinators of melittophilous Salvia species (Lamiaceae).
abstract: •
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Floral adaptation to a functional pollinator group does not necessarily mean close specialization to a few pollinator species. For the more than 950 species of Salvia, only bee and bird pollinations are known. Restriction to these pollinators is mainly due to the specific flower construction (lever mechanism). Nevertheless, it has been repeatedly suggested that Salvia flowers might also be pollinated by flies. Are flies able to handle the lever mechanism? Are they functionally equivalent pollinators? In this study, we compared and quantified pollen transfer by bees and flies to test whether flies are true pollinators in Salvia.•
  
  
  METHODS
  We identified pollinators using field observations and photos. Video documentation of the visitation rate and the site of pollen placement on the pollinator body, morphometric measurements, quantification of pollen placement, pollen load, handling time, and stigma contact ratio were analyzed.•
  
  
  RESULTS
  Field investigations revealed that 19 insect species pollinated S. virgata and four pollinated S. verticillata, including 16 bee species from seven genera of the Apidae and three fly species from three genera of the Nemestrinidae and Tabanidae.•
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Flies have been found to be pollinators in primarily bee-pollinated Salvia species. This result demonstrates the potential of a given "melittoid" flower construction to broaden the range of pollinators to guarantee successful pollination and seed production. Though bees, particularly Bombus terrestris, were more efficient than flies, the study shows that flies significantly contribute to pollen transfer in Salvia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Polatlı Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Gazi University, 06900 Polatlı, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ferhat
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Celep
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Zeynep
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Atalay
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Fatih
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Dikmen
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Musa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Doğan
authors.affiliation: Institut für Spezielle Botanik, Johannes Gutenberg Universität, Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Regıne
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Classen-Bockhoff
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001516:Bees; D001717:Birds; D004175:Diptera; D035264:Flowers; D011058:Pollen; D054817:Pollination; D012098:Reproduction; D027544:Salvia / Q000502:physiology*; D012639:Seeds
keywords: Apidae; Lamiaceae; Nemestrinidae; Salvia; Tabanidae; Turkey; bee pollination; fly pollination; morphometry; pollinator efficiency