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Insect Visitation Of Peduncular And Petiolar Extrafloral Nectar Glands On Castor Bean (Ricinus Communis L.) Plants In Southern California, Victor D. Carmona
Insect Visitation Of Peduncular And Petiolar Extrafloral Nectar Glands On Castor Bean (Ricinus Communis L.) Plants In Southern California, Victor D. Carmona
Victor D. Carmona-Galindo
Castor bean (Ricinus communis L.) is a myrmecophytic plant species with specialized extrafloral nectar (EFN) glands that serve to attract predatory insects, which in return defend plant-tissues against herbivores. The EFN glands on castor bean plants are located along the leaf petioles as well as on the peduncles of its imperfect (unisexual) flowers. This field-project evaluates the richness, diversity, and species assemblage of insects visiting EFN glands located on (female and male) flower peduncles and leaf petioles on castor bean plants growing in a Southern California coastal landscape. We detected that EFN glands on female-flower peduncles were visited by an …
Biology Of The Epichloë-Botanophila Interaction: An Intriguing Association Between Fungi And Insects, Thomas L. Bultman, Adrian Leuchtmann
Biology Of The Epichloë-Botanophila Interaction: An Intriguing Association Between Fungi And Insects, Thomas L. Bultman, Adrian Leuchtmann
Thomas L. Bultman
Epichloë fungi (Ascomycota: Clavicipitaceae) are endophytes of grasses that can produce epiphytic stromata on the culms of their hosts. The fungal stromata are visited by Botanophila flies for feeding and egg laying. We review research over the past 20 years that has documented the heterothallic mating system of Epichloë, the mutualistic service of spermatization flies provide for the fungus, and host selection by flies. Flies display an active, stereotypical behavior immediately following oviposition by which spermatia are transferred endozoochorously to stromata. After eggs hatch larvae feed on developing perithecia. Several studies have focused on the cost (consumption of ascospores) to …