Metapopulation pollination in the deceptive orchidAnacamptis pyramidalis

Abstract

Pollen dispersal between local plant populations within a range of 6 km in a geographically defined metapopulation of the lepidopteran‐pollinated deceptive orchidAnacamptis pyramidaliswas studied on the island Öland in the Baltic Sea. LocalA. pyramidalispopulations were examined for pollinators, flowering individuals, and fruit set. Population sizes of pollen vector species were estimated using a mark–release–recapture technique. As pollen vectors, the burnet mothZygaena minosand the butterflyAporia crataegidominated. 205 out of 745 marked lepidopterans were pollinarium carriers. The proportion carriers of the total was considerably higher inZ. minos(50.3%), than inA. crataegi(21.5%) and nymphalidae (8.2%). Furthermore,Z. minosmoved much shorter distances thanA. crataegidid, while no difference in potential pollen dispersal distances were found between males and females. The number of individual vectors recaptured in another local population ofA. pyramidaliswas low:A. crataegi(8) andZ. minos(1). The ratio of pollinaria transferred to another localA. pyramidalispopulation compared to pollinaria remaining within the same local population was 1:41. This study highlights that pollen dispersal distances vary between pollen vector species.