Native birds and insects,and introduced honey bees visiting Echium wildpretii (Boraginaceae) in the Canary Islands |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Dept. de Biología Animal (Zoología), Universidad de La Laguna, 38206 La Laguna, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain;2. Department of Ecology and Genetics, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade Building 540, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark;1. Kansai Research Center, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Nagai-kyutaro 68, Momoyama, Fushimi, Kyoto 612-0855, Japan;2. Wildlife Management Research Center, 940 Sawano, Aogaki-cho, Tanba, Hyogo 669-3842, Japan;3. Shikoku Research Center, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Asakura Nishimachi 2-915, Kochi 780-8077, Japan;1. Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Lancaster Environment Centre, Bailrigg, LA1 4AP, UK;2. Caslum, Isle of Canna, PH44 4RS, UK;3. The James Hutton Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen, AB15 8QH, UK;4. School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, AB24 3UU, UK;1. Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Industrial and Mechanical Engineering, Qazvin Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qazvin, Iran;2. Department of Systems Science and Industrial Engineering, State University of New York at Binghamton, NY, USA;3. Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran;1. Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, Department of Forensic Genetics, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany;2. The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom;3. Universidade Federal do Pará, Laboratório de Genética Humana e Médica, Belém, Pará, Brazil;4. BIOMICs Research Group, Universidad del País Vasco, Vitoria, Spain;5. Department of Legal Medicine, University of Zaragoza, Spain;1. Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Neurosciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States;2. Department of Neuroscience, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States |
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| Abstract: | In this paper, we report observations of flower visitors of the endemic Echium wildpretii in Tenerife, Canary Islands. This plant inhabits the high altitudinal sub-alpine zone, which is characterized by a harsh climate, low species diversity and a short growing season. Echium wildpretii is a monocarpic perennial, producing a 2–3 m column-shaped, red-flowered, nectar-rich inflorescence. Although these floral traits have previously been suggested as being typical of ornithophilous flowers, this is the first study reporting observations of native birds (Phylloscopus collybita and Serinus canarius) in addition to insects visiting the flowers for nectar. The purposes of this study were firstly to investigate levels of visitation by native birds, native insects, and introduced honey bees. Secondly, we studied the influence of floral display (plant height and number of flowers), nearest neighbours (distance and size) and local vegetation structure on visitation rate. Finally, we discuss the evolution of ornithophily in an otherwise entomophilous plant lineage. We found that the level of bird visitation was relatively high early in the flowering season, but decreased in mid/late season, while the opposite pattern was found for introduced honey bees. For native insects, the frequency of visits was similar in early and late season. Bird visits were correlated with floral display. In the early season, visitation rates of honey bees and the two most common native bee species were correlated with size of the plant or its nearest neighbours, consistent with preference patterns for larger resource patches. Since only insects visit the flowers of other species in the Echium clade, E. wildpretii appears to have evolved from a truly insect-pollinated lineage. |
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