Syzygium myrtifolium Walp. flowering stages and its visitor insects

Abstract

Abstract. Mudiana D, Ariyanti EE. 2021. Syzygium myrtifolium Walp. flowering stages and its visitor insects. Biodiversitas 22: 3489-3496. “Pucuk merah” or Red lip (Syzygium myrtifolium Walp.) is widely known as an ornamental plant used as garden components. This species belongs to the Myrtaceae family with the scientific name Syzygium myrtifolium Walp. This paper specifically aimed to observe the stages of flowering and visiting insects of S. myrtifolium, while the determination of insects as pollinators was not carried out in this study, and was intended merely to make a species list of visiting insects, without counting the number of individuals and the times of their visits. These are done by examining two individual trees of S. myrtifolium (which have flowered and fruited several times) during its flowering season, recording all visible flower developments and the visitor insects. The visitor insects were observed during flower bloom. The results showed ten stages of flowering process in S. myrtifolium starting from emerging flower buds until fruits riped, which took 105-124 days. Twelve species of insects were recorded visiting flowers of S. myrtifolium during full blooming period, namely Euploea core, Hypolimnas bolina, Telicota colon, Eurema hecabe, Rapala pheretima, Apis cerana, Apis mellifera, Trigona sp., Dysphania sagana, Amata trigonophora, Chrysomya megacephala, Lucilia caesar. They belong to three orders, i.e. Diptera, Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera; and eight families, namely Calliphoridae, Apidae, Hesperiidae, Nymphalidae, Lycaenidae, Geometridae, Erebidae, and Pieridae.