Abstract
Abstract: Florivory can alter plant reproductive success by damaging sexual reproductive structures and disrupting plant-pollinator interactions through decreased flower attractiveness. Here, we report new records of the cactus Tacinga inamoena flower consumption by the Tropidurus hispidus lizard in the Brazilian Caatinga. We monitored 53 flowers from 11 T. inamoena individuals with camera traps over a 1-year period, totalling 450 camera-days of sample effort. We detected four florivory events. In three of these events, flowers were entirely consumed or had their reproductive structures severely damaged, leading to no fruit formation. Florivory events occurred in the morning, right after anthesis, in flowers near the ground, and lizards did not climb the cactus. Our results suggest that T. hispidus florivory on T. inamoena could have a negative impact on fruit set, since the consumed flowers were entirely destroyed. However, the long-term effects of florivory by lizards on T. inamoena reproductive success in the Caatinga still needs to be elucidated.
Highlights
Florivory refers to the consumption of floral structures by a wide variety of animal taxa (McCall & Irwin 2006)
Flower herbivores can indirectly interfere in plant reproductive success by damaging the petals, making the flower unrecognizable or less attractive to pollinators (Krupnick & Weis 1999; Mothershead & Marquis 2000)
In one of the florivory events recorded on T. inamoena, the petals were not entirely consumed by the lizard T. hispidus, and, through the camera traps we could not determine whether the reproductive structures were damaged or not, we did not observe any flower visitors after consumption by the lizard
Summary
Florivory refers to the consumption of floral structures by a wide variety of animal taxa (McCall & Irwin 2006). Vertebrate florivory distinguishes from invertebrate florivory since entire flowers are frequently eaten in the former (Riba-Hernandez & Stoner 2005) Such is the case of florivory by lizards, as their feeding on flowers is often destructive (Olsson et al 2000). Is one of the most diverse plant families in the Neotropics, representing an important floristic element in arid and semiarid environments with extreme conditions (Mutke 2015) For this family, florivory has been found in drier areas, where cacti flowers stand out for their water content and nutritional value (Nobel 2002). Florivory has been found in drier areas, where cacti flowers stand out for their water content and nutritional value (Nobel 2002) In such environments, cacti flowers are partially or entirely consumed by invertebrates, e.g., Opuntia Mill. Cacti flowers are partially or entirely consumed by invertebrates, e.g., Opuntia Mill. flowers eaten by Lepidoptera larvae in Chihuahuan Desert (Pinã et al 2007, 2010), Ariocarpus Scheidw. flowers consumed by Coleoptera and Lepidoptera in Mexico (CárdenasRamos & Mandujano 2019), destruction of flower parts (tepals, stamens, stigma) of Melocactus Link & Otto (Colaço et al 2006) and Cereus Mill., Pilosocereus Byles & Rowley, Harrisia Britton, and Tacinga Britton & Rose (Rocha et al 2020) by flower-damaging bees Trigona spinipes (Fabricius 1973), and vertebrates, e.g., Opuntia flowers eaten by lizards in Galápagos Island (Nobel 2002), Melocactus flowers eaten by Tropiduridae lizards in the Brazilian Caatinga (Gomes et al 2013), and the short columnar cactus Echinopsis rhodotricha K.Schum. florivory by deer and peccaries in the Brazilian Chaco (Gomes et al 2016)
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