Thrips Cross‐Pollination ofPopowia pisocarpa(Annonaceae) in a Lowland Dipterocarp Forest in Sarawak¹

Abstract

This paper reports thrips (Thysanoptera) cross‐pollination in the primitive angiosperm, Popowia pisocarpa (Annonaceae), in lowland rain forest of Sarawak, Malaysia. Flowers of P. pisocarpa have a tiny pollination chamber (3–4 mm in depth) with the entrance almost closed by the disk‐shaped stigmatic heads, allowing only small insects to enter. Experiments showed that thrips were effective pollinators and flowers ofP. pisocarpa were self‐incompatible. Seed set was limited by pollen. Clumped adult trees had higher seed‐set than more distant individuals (>5 m from nearest flowering neighbor), indicating limited inter‐tree movement by thrips.

Thrips pollination of androdioeciousCastilla elastica(Moraceae) in a seasonal tropical forest

“…Distance of thrips movement in forests has not been estimated yet. Momose, Nagamitsu, and Inoue (1998) reported thrips pollination of an understory tree, Popowia pisocarpa (Annonaceae), and suggested that limited movement of thrips caused lower fruit set of isolated trees. On the other hand, Appanah and Chan (1981) argued that thrips visiting flowers of emergent trees moved for long distances between trees, carried by a wind, and effectively pollinated six species of emergent trees (Shorea, Dipterocarpaceae).…”

“…Thrips feed on floral tissue, nectar and exposed liquids, and pollen grains in flowers (Kirk, 1984). Although they are thought to rarely contribute to pollination, recent studies have reported thrips as primary pollinators in many plant species of several families including Annonaceae (Webber and Gottsberger, 1995;Momose, Nagamitsu, and Inoue, 1998), Araceae (Rust, 1980), Lauraceae (Norton, 1984), Winteraceae (Thien, 1980;Pellmyr et al, 1990), and Zamiaceae (Mound and Terry, 2001). Pollen grain size in plants pollinated by thrips is Ͻ34 m, which corresponds well to grain size of C. elastica (F. Gattesco and D. W. Roubik, personal communication).…”

The Pollination of Mid Mesozoic Seed Plants and the Early History of Long-proboscid Insects1,2,3

“…A few Hemiptera, principally phytophagous bugs, are pollinators (Ishida et al, 2008). Thrips commonly are associated with flowers (Pellmyr et al, 1990;Totland, 1993;Momose et al, 1998;Jurgens et al, 2000) and use the punch-and-suck feeding for extracting individual protoplasts from pollen grains (Grinfel'd, 1959;Kirk, 1984). This technique apparently was used by thysanopteran ancestors on Permian noeggerathialean spores (Wang et al, 2009) and evolved separately in some modern ceratopogonid midges of the Diptera (Billes, 1941;Downes, 1955).…”

“…Thrips also are common pollinators on basal angiosperms, attributable to their small size and penchant for accessing petal tissues and individual pollen grains by their distinctive punch-and-suck feeding technique in extracting protoplasts (Grinfel'd, 1959;Kirk, 1984). In modern floras, thrips rarely exceed 4 mm in length and are frequently abundant in a wide variety of flowers (Momose et al, 1998;Williams et al, 2001). …”

Pollination of Myristica and Other Nutmegs in Natural Populations

“…In addition to beetles, flies and thrips are important pollinators for several genera of Annonaceae [26][27][28][29][30]. In Myristicaceae, thrips were reported as floral visitors of Neotropical species, and thrips, beetles, and flies have been found effecting pollination [31,32].…”