Peakall Rod, Angus Craig J, Beattie Andrew J
School of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, 2109, NSW, Australia.
Oecologia. 1990 Oct;84(4):457-460. doi: 10.1007/BF00328160.
Ant metapleural glands secrete surface antibiotics that affect pollen as well as bacteria and fungi. This may be one reason why ant pollination is rare. It is predicted that pollination by ants is possible only in the presence of certain ant and/or plant traits. Two traits are investigated; first, absence of the metapleural glands, and second, the presence of stigmatic secretions that insulate pollen from the ant integument. The pollinator of the orchid Leporella fimbriata is the ant Myrmecia urens. Only one caste is involved, the winged males, and they differ significantly from the queen and worker castes in that they do not possess metapleural glands. This paper reports experiments which test for differential effects on pollen between the males and other castes and evaluates the importance of stigmatic secretions. The results show that the absence of metapleural glands makes no difference as all three castes have strong disruptive effect on pollen artificially applied to the integument. However, during pollination the orchid secures the pollen mass to the ant surface by stigmatic secretions and normal pollen function, fruit production and seed set occur. It appears that both ant and plant traits are pre-adaptive having evolved for functions other than ant pollination.
蚂蚁的后胸侧板腺分泌的表面抗生素会影响花粉以及细菌和真菌。这可能是蚂蚁传粉罕见的原因之一。据预测，只有在存在某些蚂蚁和/或植物特征的情况下，蚂蚁传粉才有可能。研究了两个特征：第一，没有后胸侧板腺；第二，存在柱头分泌物，使花粉与蚂蚁体表隔离。兰花毛唇卷瓣兰的传粉者是尤伦斯斗牛犬蚁。只涉及一个蚁型，即有翅雄蚁，它们与蚁后和工蚁蚁型有显著不同，因为它们没有后胸侧板腺。本文报告了一些实验，测试雄蚁和其他蚁型对花粉的不同影响，并评估柱头分泌物的重要性。结果表明，没有后胸侧板腺并无差异，因为所有三个蚁型对人工涂抹在体表的花粉都有很强的破坏作用。然而，在传粉过程中，兰花通过柱头分泌物将花粉块固定在蚂蚁体表，正常的花粉功能、果实形成和种子结实都会发生。看来蚂蚁和植物的特征都是预先适应的，它们进化出来是为了实现除蚂蚁传粉之外的其他功能。
