Atratividade floral para agentes antagonistas e honestidade floral na espécie Senna rugosa (FABACEAE)

Abstract

The signals emitted by the flowers can assist in the foraging strategies of mutualists and antagonists. This signaling can be affected by antagonistic agents such as florivores and pollen thieves. Florivory can be even more harmful in species with a higher level of specialization, such as those of the genus Senna, which have monomorphic enantiostyly. Besides, floral signs can indicate relationships between quality and quantity of resources, this relationship is called floral honesty and is little studied in pollen flowers and natural environments. This study aimed to investigate the patterns of natural florivory and its influence on the attraction of pollen thieves, as well as floral honesty in the species Senna rugosa. Chapter one provides results on the influence of floral size on the quantity, locations, and forms of florivory and its influence on the attraction of pollen thieves. We observed that smaller flowers have a greater amount of florivory and that the floral size affects the location patterns and the shape of this florivory in Senna rugosa, but this attribute does not seem to be the main attraction for pollen thieves. The florivory did not determine the attraction of these antagonists. In the second chapter, it was observed that smaller flowers had a larger amount of pollen grains and that the size of the corolla was not the determining factor in attracting visitors, unlike the size of the anthers.In general, the results observed here show that S. rugosa florivores may be guided by the floral size for foraging decisions, and those pollen thieves may have been instigated to visit more by pollen consumption than by visual signs. Besides, the greater amount of pollen in smaller flowers may indicate specific signs for experienced bees. This study provides important information about antagonistic interactions and the standards of honesty of signals in an enantiostylic species, being relevant to the understanding of their reproduction and conservation of populations and interactions of this species.