Flower-visiting insects of genus (Myrtales: Melastomataceae) at the Fushan Botanical Garden, Taiwan.

BACKGROUND

We investigated the diversity and behaviour of insects that visit flowers of four native (Family Melastomataceae) species of Taiwan and a horticultural hybrid species at the Fushan Botanical Garden, Taiwan biweekly from May to August 2020. Visits of flower-visiting insects were classified into seven behavioural categories, based on the insects' behaviour and positions on the flower. The data are further assigned into four insect-flower interactions, namely pollination, herbivory, commensalism and neutralism. Our goal is to provide baseline data of insect-plant interactions of , which is a common, but understudied plant genus in the country.

NEW INFORMATION

A total of 1,289 visits to flowers were recorded by at least 63 insect morphospecies belonging to seven orders. The number of insect species recorded per species ranged from 9 to 39. Visiting, sonication and passing were the three most frequently recorded types of behaviour, collectively accounting for 90.2% (n = 1,240) of the total observations. Pollination was the most dominant insect-flower interaction, accounting for 70.2% of the total observations, followed by neutralism (20.0%), herbivory (6.3%) and commensalism (3.5%). Sweat bees of the genera and (Hymenoptera: Halictidae) are considered key pollinators to species in Fushan Botanical Garden, based on their high number of visits and sonication behaviour. Our study provides the first list of insects that visit the flowers of all Taiwan's known species and description of their interactions with the plants.