Pollination system of Shorea curtisii, a dominant species in hill dipterocarp forests
2016
Otani, T. | Kondo, T. | Lee, S. L. | Tani, N.
A crucial topic in tropical rainforest research in South-East Asia is the pollination systems of mast species, which flower abundantly at multiple-year intervals. In this study of Shorea curtisii, a dominant tree species in hill dipterocarp forests, we collected insects from flowering branches of a S. Curtisii tree sampled at 6-hour intervals during peak bloom. Of the 482 collected insects, 90.7% were thrips, which are weak fliers, and 4.2% were the predatory big-eyed bug. Only one individual of these taxa was found in a sample taken during the non-flowering season. It is possible that during mass flowering of S. curtisii, outbreaks of thrips that use scattered floral resources attract predatory big-eyed bugs, which are strong fliers, and which move among flowering S. curtisii trees providing pollination services. Since the most abundant thrips species (Haplothrips sp., 50.0%) inhabits capsule-shaped stipules of other Shorea section Mutica species throughout the year, big-eyed bugs may be able to respond to general flowering events by preying upon stipule thrips during intervening periods. Thus, pollination of S. curtisii may be achieved via the ecological food chain between several types of thrips and big-eyed bugs, and such a pollination system adapted to mass flowering could be supported by diverse tree species in hill dipterocarp forests.
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