Abstract
The plant genus Ficus is a keystone resource in tropical ecoystems. One of the unique features of figs is the diversity of fruit traits, which in many cases match their various dispersers, the so-called fruit syndromes. The classic example of this is the strong phenotypic differences found between figs with bat and bird dispersers (color, size, presentation, and scent). The ‘bird-fig’ Ficus colubrinae represents an exception to this trend since it attracts the small frugivorous bat species Ectophylla alba at night, but during the day it attracts bird visitors. Here we investigate day to night changes in fruit scent as a possible mechanism by which this ‘bird-fig’ could attract bats despite its fruit traits, which should appeal solely to birds. Analyses of odor bouquets from the bat- and bird-dispersal phases (i.e. day and night) differed significantly in their composition of volatiles. We observed a significant increase in relative amounts of sesquiterpene and aromatic compounds at night while relative amounts of two compounds of the fatty acid pathway were significantly higher during day. This finding raises the question whether Ficus colubrinae, a phenotypically classic ‘bird-fig’, might be able to attract bat dispersers by an olfactory signal at night. Preliminary observations from feeding experiments which indicate that Ectophylla alba is capable of finding ripe figs by scent alone point in this direction. However, additional behavioral experiments on whether bats prefer the ‘night-bouquet’ over the ‘day-bouquet’ will be needed to unequivocally answer this question.
Highlights
Fruiting plants need to ensure that their seeds are transported away from their point of origin in order to increase survival probability by avoiding competition and reaching advantageous environments for germination [1]
Farther north where F. colubrinae occurs in sympatry with E. alba this particular bat species shows a dietary specialization on F. colubrinae [29], and to a lesser extent on F. schippii, [30])
Our study shows that odor bouquets of figs of F. colubrinae undergo significant changes with regard to the relative amounts of compounds during the process of maturation, and in our chemical analyses we found that bouquets of ripe figs differ significantly in the composition of volatiles during day and night
Summary
Fruiting plants need to ensure that their seeds are transported away from their point of origin in order to increase survival probability by avoiding competition and reaching advantageous environments for germination [1]. Zoochory, frequently consists of a mutualistic relationship between plants and animals where animals are rewarded with edible, fleshy fruit parts for their service of transporting seeds away from the parental plant [3]. That are consumed by either bats or birds may vary strongly in their appearance as a consequence of the contrasting sensory capacities and activity times of the associated dispersers [6]. Bat dispersed plants usually present fruits on erect spikes or pendulous structures in order to facilitate close distance detection by echolocation [14, 15]. While bats are able to consume larger fruits piecemeal by using their teeth, fruit size may be challenging to bird species which are limited by gape width [16,17,18,19]
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