Abstract
While Coleoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera, and Lepidoptera have traditionally been recognized as key pollinators, recent studies suggest that other insect groups, such as Blattodea (cockroaches), may also play a significant role. However, direct evidence of fruit set resulting from cockroach pollination remains limited, even in plants presumed to rely on this mode of pollination. This study investigated the breeding system of the non-photosynthetic plant Balanophora tobiracola on Yakushima Island, Japan, with a particular focus on the potential occurrence of agamospermy. Additionally, the research rigorously evaluates the pollination effectiveness of cockroaches and ants in B. tobiracola by assessing reproductive success exclusively through their visits. Pollination experiments revealed high fruit set even under emasculation, indicating that agamospermy ensures seed production. However, B. tobiracola still relies heavily on pollinator activity for sexual reproduction. Ants and cockroaches were identified as effective pollinators, whereas contributions of pyralid moths, crane flies, and nitidulid beetles-whose larvae consume B. tobiracola infructescences-were negligible. Notably, a single visit from certain cockroach species significantly enhanced pollination. The above findings demonstrate that B. tobiracola is effectively pollinated by cockroaches and ants. Combining unusual pollinators with agamospermy likely facilitates the reproductive success of B. tobiracola in dense forest understories where typical pollinators, like bees, are scarce. Our results underscore the need to reassess the role of agamospermy as reproductive assurance and the significance of cockroaches and ants as pollinators, particularly for plants in shaded understory habitats.
Abstract from the paper’s OpenAlex record, shown for indexing and research. Copyright remains with the authors or the publisher. Read at the source ↗
The text the model read, with the source record’s inline markup (italics, sub- and superscripts) rendered and its character entities decoded; quote offsets refer to the raw text.
Claims 5
Claim · model-written summary
Balanophora tobiracola set high fruit even under emasculation
- Taxon
- Balanophora tobiracola
Balanophora tobiracolae0 - Outcome
- fruit sete1
- Qualifier
- even under emasculatione1
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“breeding system of the non-photosynthetic plant Balanophora tobiracola on Yakushima Island”
e1“Pollination experiments revealed high fruit set even under emasculation, indicating that agamospermy ensures seed production”
Claim · model-written summary
Balanophora tobiracola still relies heavily on pollinator activity for sexual reproduction
- Taxon
- B. tobiracolaBalanophora tobiracolae2
- Outcome
- sexual reproductione2
- Qualifier
- relies heavily on pollinator activitye2
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e2“B. tobiracola still relies heavily on pollinator activity for sexual reproduction”
Claim · model-written summary
Ants and cockroaches were identified as effective pollinators of Balanophora tobiracola
- Taxon
- Balanophora tobiracolaBalanophora tobiracolae0
- Interactor
- AntsFormicidaee3pollinator
- Second interactor
- cockroachese3pollinator
- Outcome
- effective pollinatorse3
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“breeding system of the non-photosynthetic plant Balanophora tobiracola on Yakushima Island”
e3“Ants and cockroaches were identified as effective pollinators”
Claim · model-written summary
Contributions of pyralid moths, crane flies and nitidulid beetles to pollination of Balanophora tobiracola were negligible
- Taxon
- Balanophora tobiracolaBalanophora tobiracolae0
- Interactor
- pyralid moths, crane flies, and nitidulid beetlese4pollinator
- Outcome
- contributionse4
- Qualifier
- were negligiblee5
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“breeding system of the non-photosynthetic plant Balanophora tobiracola on Yakushima Island”
e4“contributions of pyralid moths, crane flies, and nitidulid beetles”
e5“were negligible”
Claim · model-written summary
A single visit from certain cockroach species significantly enhanced pollination of Balanophora tobiracola
- Taxon
- Balanophora tobiracolaBalanophora tobiracolae0
- Treatment
- a single visite6
- Interactor
- cockroach speciese6pollinator
- Outcome
- pollinatione6
- Direction
- enhancede6
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“breeding system of the non-photosynthetic plant Balanophora tobiracola on Yakushima Island”
e6“a single visit from certain cockroach species significantly enhanced pollination”