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Link to original content: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21653396
Evolution of obligate pollination mutualism in New Caledonian Phyllanthus (Euphorbiaceae) - PubMed Skip to main page content
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. 2004 Mar;91(3):410-5.
doi: 10.3732/ajb.91.3.410.

Evolution of obligate pollination mutualism in New Caledonian Phyllanthus (Euphorbiaceae)

Atsushi Kawakita  1 , Makoto Kato
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Evolution of obligate pollination mutualism in New Caledonian Phyllanthus (Euphorbiaceae)

Atsushi Kawakita et al. Am J Bot. 2004 Mar.
Free article

Abstract

About half a dozen obligate pollination mutualisms between plants and their seed-consuming pollinators are currently recognized, including fig-fig wasp, yucca-yucca moth, and the recently discovered Glochidion tree-Epicephala moth mutualisms. A common principle among these interactions is that the pollinators consume only a limited amount of the seed crop within a developing fruit (or fig in the case of fig-fig wasp mutualism), thereby ensuring a net benefit to plant reproduction. A novel obligate, seed-parasitic pollination mutualism between two species of New Caledonian Phyllanthus (Euphorbiaceae), a close relative of Glochidion, and Epicephala moths (Gracillariidae) is an exception to this principle. The highly specialized flowers of Phyllanthus are actively and exclusively pollinated by species-specific Epicephala moths, whose larvae consume all six ovules of the developing fruit. Some flowers pollinated by the moths remain untouched, and thus a fraction of the fruits is left intact. Additional evidence for a similar association of Epicephala moths in other Phyllanthus species suggests that this interaction is a coevolved, species-specific pollination mutualism. Implications for the evolutionary stability of the system, as well as differences in mode of interaction with respect to the Glochidion-Epicephala mutualism, are discussed.

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