Keywords :
Afgekia sericea Craib; visitors; pollinators; Papilionnoideae
บทคัดย่อ :
Afgekia sericea Craib (Fabaceae) is an endemic leguminous plant
of Thailand. It is becoming rare due to fragmentation of its natural habitats
which is probably leading to a reduction of reproductive success. This study
investigated the interaction of the plant and its floral visitors in relation to
fruit and seed set in three study sites which had different degrees of habitat
disturbance. Sixteen bees, one small butterfly, one beetle and one sunbird
were found to be visitors, but we found that only eleven bee species in the
three genera, i.e. Megachile, Nomia, and Pithitis take part in the pollination.
Some of these bees were particularly effective pollinators, especially M.
velutina was found to be legitimate pollinator for A. sericea. The abundance
of effective pollinating insects decreased markedly as the degree of habitat
disturbance increased. These insect visitors are attracted by nectar guides on
the vexillum and rewarded by pollen and/or nectar. Experiments in which
flowers were enclosed in bags, thus preventing access by insects yielded no
fruit set, while open pollination that allowed insects to visit flowers, resulted
in fruit setting. These results indicate clearly that fruit set in this legume
species depended largely on bee pollinators. However, percentage of fruit set
was extremely low since less than 0.2% was observed from two natural sites.
เอกสารอ้างอิง :
Chourykaew, B., Khunwasi, C., Boonkerd, T., & Seelanan, T. (2004). Floral Visitors and Fruit Set in Afgekia Sericea Craib (Fabaceae). Tropical Natural History, 4(2), 31-44.
