Hao Kai, Liu Ting-Ting, Hembry David H, Luo Shi-Xiao
Key Laboratory of Plant Resources Conservation and Sustainable Utilization, South China Botanical Garden Chinese Academy of Science Guangzhou China.
South China National Botanical Garden Guangzhou China.
Ecol Evol. 2023 Jul 4;13(7):e10228. doi: 10.1002/ece3.10228. eCollection 2023 Jul.
Trait matching between mutualistic species is usually expected to maintain mutualism, but empirical studies of trait complementarity and coadaptation in multi-species assemblages-which represent the reality of most interactions in nature-are few. Here, we studied trait matching between the leafflower shrub and three associated seed-predatory leafflower moths ( spp.) across 16 populations. Behavioral and morphological observations suggested that two moths ( and ) acted as pollinators while a third () acted as a cheater. These species differed in ovipositor morphology but showed trait complementarity between ovipositor length and floral traits at both species level and population level, presumably as adaptations to divergent oviposition behaviors. However, this trait matching varied among populations. Comparisons of ovipositor length and floral traits among populations with different moth assemblages suggested an increase of ovary wall thickness where the locular-ovipositing pollinator and cheater were present, while stylar pit depth was less in populations with the stylar pit-ovipositing pollinator . Our study indicates that trait matching between interacting partners occurs even in extremely specialized multi-species mutualisms, and that although these responses vary, sometimes non-intuitively, in response to different partner species. It seems that the moths can track changes in host plant tissue depth for oviposition.
互利共生物种之间的性状匹配通常被认为能维持互利共生关系，但对于多物种组合中性状互补和共同适应的实证研究却很少，而多物种组合代表了自然界中大多数相互作用的实际情况。在这里，我们研究了叶下珠灌木与三种相关的叶下珠种子捕食蛾（ 属）在16个种群中的性状匹配情况。行为和形态学观察表明，两种蛾（ 和 ）充当传粉者，而第三种蛾（ ）则充当欺骗者。这些物种的产卵器形态不同，但在物种水平和种群水平上，产卵器长度与花部性状之间都表现出性状互补，这可能是对不同产卵行为的适应。然而，这种性状匹配在不同种群之间存在差异。对具有不同蛾类组合的种群之间的产卵器长度和花部性状进行比较发现，在存在室部产卵传粉者 和欺骗者 的种群中，子房壁厚度增加，而在存在花柱凹部产卵传粉者 的种群中，花柱凹部深度较小。我们的研究表明，即使在极其特殊的多物种互利共生关系中，相互作用的伙伴之间也会出现性状匹配，而且尽管这些反应会有所不同，有时甚至不符合直觉，但它们会因不同的伙伴物种而有所变化。看来这些蛾类能够追踪寄主植物组织深度的变化以进行产卵。
