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Work in Darkness: How Hawk Moth Produce Mangabas (Hancornia speciosa, Apocynaceae) in Brazilian Cerrado

Oliveira, Reisla; Zanella, Fernando C.V.; Martins, Celso F.; Antonini, Yasmine; Grieb, Beatrice and Schlindwein, Clemens (2015) Work in Darkness: How Hawk Moth Produce Mangabas (Hancornia speciosa, Apocynaceae) in Brazilian Cerrado. In: Management of land use systems for enhanced food security - conflicts, controversies and resolutions, pp. 739-740.

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Document available online at: http://www.tropentag.de/abstract.php?code=G9zJ6IbE


Summary

Mangaba (Hancornia speciosa, Apocynaceae), native to Cerrado in Brazil, is a tropical fruit crop, consumed mainly as juice. Supply, however, does not satisfy the market because mangabas are still harvested mainly in natural populations. Thus, the species has a great potential as future fruit crop. Recently, first experimental mangaba orchards arose in agricultural research stations in northeastern Brazil.
We analysed floral biology and breeding systems, determined effective pollinators and evaluated the pollination success of mangaba in natural environments and experimental orchards. Furthermore, we evaluated environmental demands of effective pollination.
Hancornia speciosa is a self-incompatible tree with nocturnal flowers. Insects with long mouthparts of more than 30 species, especially nocturnal hawk moths (Sphingidae), visited the flowers. The flowers exhibit a precise pollination apparatus, which optimises pollen transfer between flower and pollinator. During a flower visit, almost half of exogenous pollen grains adhering to the proboscis are deposited on the stigma surface.
While the pollination mechanism avoids self-pollination, mass-flowering promotes geitonogamy. A pollination experiment with nylon threads simulating consecutive flower visits within a crown revealed that there is no fruit set after the third consecutive flower visit. Nevertheless, all groups of flower visitors with long mouthparts were effective pollinators and, mangaba plants, in general, benefit by a high pollinator abundance and diversity.
Fruit set in the studied populations were strongly pollinator limited, and the mangaba berries showed a high variation in size and weight. Seed number was directly correlated to fruit weight. An optimised pollinator mediated flow of cross pollen, thus, is responsible for large fruits.
Our data suggest that fruit set could be increased two to three times with better pollination service. The study indicates that pollinator management implies management of the surrounding vegetation of the mangaba orchards guaranteeing a diversified environment. Strong pollinator populations require sphingophilous plants in the surroundings of the plantation that provide nectar when mangaba does not flower. Moreover, their oligotrophic caterpillars need specific species of host plants to survive. Orchards with clonal mangaba plants will result in low fruit set.


EPrint Type:Conference paper, poster, etc.
Type of presentation:Paper
Agrovoc keywords:
Language
Value
URI
English
Brazil
http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_1070
English
Euglossini mangaba
UNSPECIFIED
English
Pollination
http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_6073
English
Pollinator management
UNSPECIFIED
English
Sphingidae
http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_30348
English
Tropical fruits
http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_7974
Subjects: Environmental aspects > Biodiversity and ecosystem services
Food systems
Research affiliation: Brazil > Other organizations
Germany > University of Gießen > Institute of Agronomy and Plant Breeding II
Deposited By: Tobisch, Beatrice
ID Code:29552
Deposited On:14 Jan 2016 11:37
Last Modified:14 Jan 2016 11:37
Document Language:English
Status:Published
Refereed:Not peer-reviewed

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