Andrea Cocucci

• National University of Córdoba

Bat pollination at the range margin in the southwestern Neotropics has been largely unexplored. We provide for the first time direct evidence on bat pollination, visitation rate, and efficiency for three species of the Southern Andean Yungas. These interactions are valuable targets for future conservation efforts in this endangered ecosystem. Abstr...

Night-flying pollinators, such as hawkmoths, are particularly vulnerable to the global spread of urban artificial lighting which is changing nighttime environments worldwide, impacting organisms and their interactions. Incident light quality can alter flower and leaf color perception by insects, depending on the emission spectra of light sources an...

Dataset and full R script used in the data analysis of the paper "Artificial light changes visual perception by pollinators in a hawkmoth-plant interaction system". Summary: Night-flying pollinators, such as hawkmoths, are particularly vulnerable to the global spread of urban artificial lighting which is changing nighttime environments worldwide,...

Flowers of most Piperales do not reward pollinators. However, a few mutualistic pollination relationships have been proposed among the perianth-bearing species. To test the hypothesis of a mutualistic relationship between Prosopanche and beetle pollinators, we studied the pollination biology of three species (P. americana, P. bonacinae, P. panguane...

Flower morphology is considered an important factor in species diversification because it may influence the efficiency of pollination in different ways ( e.g. attraction and mechanical fit with different groups of pollinators). In the present study, we quantified the variation in flower morphology ( i.e. shape and size) of the diverse South America...

Invasive plants displaying disparate pollination environments and abiotic conditions in native and non‐native ranges provide ideal systems to test the role of different ecological factors driving flower colour variation. We quantified corolla reflectance of the ornithophilous South American Nicotiana glauca in native populations, where plants are p...

Background and aims: Nectar standing crop has a fundamental role in controlling pollinator movements between flowers and individuals within a population. In bat pollination systems, plants take advantage of the cognitive abilities of nectarivorous bats, which integrate complex perceptions of quality and spatial distribution of resources. Here, we...

Prosopanche es un género de plantas parásitas de Centroamérica y Sudamérica, el cual es poco conocido. Desarrollandose casi enteramente enterrado y con ausencia de hojas, las plantas de Prosopanche se asemejan más a los hongos que a la mayoría de las plantas. Prosopanche tiene, además, remarcables aspectos relacionados a su ecología e historia natu...

Plastome condensation during adaptation to a heterotrophic lifestyle is generally well understood and lineage-independent models have been derived. However, understanding the evolutionary trajectories of comparatively old heterotrophic lineages, that are on the cusp of a minimal plastomes, is essential to complement and expand current knowledge. We...

Palabras claves: COVBs, monoterpenos, headspace dinámico. Marco teórico: considerando que los sistemas forestales aportan el 90% de las emisiones globales de COVBs, resulta de gran importancia disponer de inventarios de emisión de la flora nativa y su aporte a los procesos atmosféricosa. Objetivo: Identificar y caracterizar las emisiones de especi...

Light pollution represents a widespread long-established human-made disturbance and an important threat to nocturnal pollination. Distance from the niche centroid where optimal environmental conditions join may be related to species sensitivity to habitat change. We estimated the environmental suitability of the plant species Erythrostemon gilliesi...

Pollination interactions between plants bearing oil-flowers and oil-collecting bees are regarded as specialized, and within the major group of bees, oil-collecting bees are considered a special functional group of pollinators, yet they encompass a great diversity, not only at taxonomic level but also in morphological and behavioral aspects. Since t...

We present, for the first time, the spectral reflectance curves of bat-pollinated flowers using as model Ceiba glaziovii (Malvaceae), an impressive tree whose crown turns completely white during the reproductive season, and 13 other chiropterophilous species from Caatinga dry forest, Northeastern Brazil. Flowers from most species reflect light in t...

Urbanization results in biodiversity-damaging land use change since it is normally associated with reduced vegetation cover and installation of artificial lights. Light pollution raises illumination levels of night skies and affects the behaviour of hawkmoths and their interactions with plants. In addition to feeding on flowers, adult hawkmoths req...

Floral scent is a key communication channel between plants and pollinators. However, the contributions of environment and phylogeny to floral scent composition remain poorly understood. In this study, we characterized interspecific variation of floral scent composition in the genus Jaborosa Juss. (Solanaceae) and, using an ecological niche modellin...

Specialization in nectarivory is an uncommon condition among bats, and it is restricted to two subfamilies of neotropical phyllostomids (Glossophaginae and Lonchophyllinae) which encompass dozens of bats with striking morpho‐physiological adaptations to exploit floral nectar (Muchhala and Tschapka 2020). Such bats commonly start the search for flow...

Due to drastic changes in pollinators between native and invaded habitats, we might expect that pollinator-mediated selection on floral traits of alien plants differ from that in their native ranges. Here, through geometric morphometric tools and phenotypic selection analyses, we examined whether adaptation in flower shape and length occurred in Ni...

Flower phenotype may diverge within plant lineages when moving across “pollinator climates” (geographic differences in pollinator abundance or preference). Here we explored the potential importance of pollinators as drivers of floral color diversification in the nightshade genus Jaborosa, taking into account color perception capabilities of the act...

Supporting Information for: Pauw, Anton, Andrea A. Cocucci, and Alicia N. Sérsic. 2020. The Least Effective Pollinator Principle: Specialized Morphology despite Generalized Ecology. Plant Biology.

Learning plays an important role in the location and utilization of nectar sources for pollinators. In this work we focus on the plant-pollinator interaction between the butterfly Agraulis vanillae (Nymphalidae) and two Glandularia plant species (Verbenaceae) that grow in sympatry. Bioassays using arrays of artificial flowers (red vs. lilac-purple)...

• The large body of work on the adaptation of plants to pollinators is still somewhat incomplete because most studies focus on one‐to‐one interactions. How will adaptation proceed in a multi‐pollinator environment? According to Stebbins’ Most Effective Pollinator Principle, “the characteristics of the flower will be molded by those pollinators that...

Plastomes of parasitic and mycoheterotrophic plants show different degrees of reduction depending on the plants’ level of heterotrophy and host dependence in comparison to photoautotrophic sister species, and the amount of time since heterotrophic dependence was established. In all but the most recent heterotrophic lineages, this reduction involves...

Introduced plants become decoupled from their usual pollinators and by relying on resident pollinator species or other reproductive strategies become established in new areas, spread and, eventually, invade. Here, using breeding system experiments, we studied the reproductive biology of the bird-pollinated South American species Nicotiana glauca ac...

Background: Despite Stebbins' principle of the most efficient pollinator was proposed decades ago, most important pollinators are still mainly identified using the frequency of visits to flowers. This shortcoming faces us with a gap between the characterization of the flower visitors of a plant species and reliable estimation of the plant fitness c...

Background: Despite Stebbins' principle of the most efficient pollinator was proposed decades ago, most important pollinators are still mainly identified using the frequency of visits to flowers. This shortcoming faces us with a gap between the characterization of the flower visitors of a plant species and reliable estimation of the plant fitness...

Colors are important vehicles for social signals in many taxa. In Squamata, previous studies have linked color characteristics and chromatic diversity to sexual selection and, particularly, species showing male-biased body size dimorphism also showed male-biased dichromatism and color diversity. Sexual dichromatism may occur in body regions used fo...

Biotic and abiotic context may affect the intensity of interspecific interactions and subsequently drive locally particular phenotypic selection patterns on interacting traits. We evaluated the geographical variation of matching traits of the brush‐type flowers of Caesalpinia gilliesii and of the proboscis length of its guild of hawkmoth pollinator...

Floral scents can act as important contributing factors to plant reproductive isolation mediated by pollinators. Plants may utilize fetid floral odors that specifically lure saprophilous flies seeking high protein content substrates, such as dung or carrion, to reach sexual maturity or as food sources for their larvae. In this work, we used baits w...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0209742.].

Occurrence data collected for the sword-billed hummingbird E. ensifera. (DOCX)

The adaptive accuracy of flowers in the context of pollination can be used to address the relationships between flower phenotype (fundamental pollination accuracy and precision) and realized accuracy and precision (interaction of floral parts with a pollinator). Here we tested whether effectiveness (number of pollen grains transported per visit) an...

Taxonomic diagnostic floral structures can be very informative about details of the floral mechanism, promoting baselines for inferences about pollination system. In a number of species in the milkweed tribe Marsdenieae, the already complex basic asclepiad flower structure is further elaborated by the evolution of one morphological novelty: the ant...

The coevolutionary process among free-living mutualists with extremely long matching traits may favor the formation of mutualistic interaction networks through coevolutionary escalation, complementarity and convergence. These networks may be geographically structured; the links among the species of a local network are shaped by the biotic compositi...

Potential current ranges of the sword-billed hummingbird E. ensifera. Probability of occurrence averaged after 10 cross-validation runs at the potential suitable habitat based on the SDMs is indicated with yellow to red colors. Background vector maps of was obtained from the public domain dataset Natural Earth @naturalearthdata.com. (EPS)

Occurrence data collected for the sword-billed hummingbird E. ensifera. (DOCX)

‘Gradual’ vs ‘punctuated’ and ‘unidirectional’ (only lengthening) vs. ‘bidirectional’ (lengthenings and shortenings) modes of evolution are explanations that compete to explain adaptive changes of flower tube length in angiosperm. The nightshade genus Salpichroa Miers, with 21 species mostly growing in the tropical Andes of southern South America,...

Geologic events promoting the aridization of southern South America contributed to lineage divergences and species differentiation through geographic (allopatric divergence) and biotic and abiotic factors (ecological divergence). For the genus Anarthrophyllum, which is distributed in arid and semi-arid regions of Patagonia, we assessed how these fa...

The astounding variety of angiosperm flower morphologies has evolved in response to many selective forces. Flower development is highly coordinated and involves developmental associations between size and shape, ontogenetic allometry, which in turn affect the morphology of mature flowers. Although ontogenetic allometries can act as a developmental...

The endemic shrub Anarthrophyllum desideratum appears to be the only ornithophilous plant offering nectar as reward in the extensive Patagonian steppe. The identity of its floral visitor assemblage and to what extent this species depends on bird pollination for sexual reproduction is yet unknown. A. desideratum’s vast distribution includes climatic...

El arbusto endémico Anarthrophyllum desideratum parece ser la única planta ornitófila que ofrece néctar como recompensa en la extensa estepa patagónica. Aún se desconoce la identidad de su ensamble de visitantes florales y en qué medida esta especie depende de la polinización por aves para la reproducción sexual. La distribución amplia de A. deside...

The multidisciplinary field of pollination biology was enriched enormously by the contributions of Stefan Vogel (1925–2015). Vogel revived and expanded the pollination syndrome concept and recognized the importance of shifts between pollination modes for angiosperm diversification. He made a number of key discoveries, including perfume and oil rewa...

Visitation rates and assemblage composition of pollinators have often been related to environmental, ecological and phenotypic variables. However, the interaction between flowers and pollinators has not been evaluated in a biomechanical context. Floral rewards in keel flowers (Fabaceae, Faboideae) are concealed behind four joined petals, the keel-w...

Oil-flower species are highly specialized attracting a narrow group of oil-collecting bees in contrast to nectar-flower species visited by a wide diversity of pollinators. The vast majority of the oil species lack nectar as a pollinator reward; this suggests that the ancestors of plants with oil flowers had either nectar-less flowers or faced stron...

En 16 especies del género sudamericano Salpichroa Miers pusimos a prueba si la variación inter-específica en los rasgos florales está asociada con cambios en el modo de polinización. Para esto reconstruimos la filogenia del grupo en base a dos marcadores de cloroplasto y uno nuclear, utilizando métodos bayesianos. Cuantificamos cuatro rasgos floral...

Many angiosperm lineages present transitions from bee to hummingbird pollination. The flower design in most of these lineages includes either corolla tubes or nectar spurs, structures that commonly experienced an elongation with the acquisition of hummingbird pollination. It is proposed that this increases the fit between the bird head and flower s...

Shrubs or perennial to annual herbs, rarely trees, rosette-forming or ephemerals, sometimes with tuberous or gemmiferous roots, or with tubers or stolons; stems occasionally with heteroblastic growth or with cauline spines; plants glabrous, frequently viscose or slightly or densely wooly-tomentose, with a diverse array of non-glandular and glandula...

Background and aims: Phenotypic diversification of flowers is frequently attributed to selection by different functional groups of pollinators. During optimization of floral phenotype, developmental robustness to genetic and non-genetic perturbations is expected to limit the phenotypic space available for future evolutionary changes. Although adap...

Passiflora caerulea L. flowers, like those of many other zoophilic species, offer nectar as reward to their pollinators as a primary attractant. This species has developed stimuli or secondary attractants that announce the presence of primary one (i.e. the nectar) and ensure repeated visits from their pollination vectors optimizing reproduction. Th...

Las flores de Passiflora caerulea L., como las de muchas otras especies zoófilas, ofrecen néctar como recompensa a sus agentes de polinización a modo de atrayente primario. Esta especie ha desarrollado estímulos, o atrayentes secundarios, que anuncian la presencia de los primarios y que garantizan las visitas repetidas de los vectores de polinizaci...

1. A major challenge in evolutionary ecology is to understand how coevolutionary processes shape patterns of interactions between species at community level. Pollination of flowers with long corolla tubes by long-tongued hawkmoths has been invoked as a showcase model of coevolution. Recently, optimal foraging models have predicted that there might...

Karyotype data within a phylogenetic framework and molecular dating were used to examine chromosome evolution in Nierembergia and to infer how geological or climatic processes have influenced in the diversification of this solanaceous genus native to South America and Mexico. Despite the numerous studies comparing karyotype features across species,...

Flowers may be interpreted as complex combinations of organs functionally coordinated to attract pollinators and to mechanically interact with the pollinator’s body, particularly when flower mechanisms are actively handled by pollinators. Thus, a functional modularity of traits in keel flowers (Fabaceae) was expected because of a compartmentalizati...

The genus Jaborosa (Solanaceae), which comprises 22 species endemic to southern South America, encompasses remarkable flower variation. To test if this interspecific variation is related to transitions in pollination mode and to major concomitant geological changes, phylogenetic relationships within the genus were reconstructed. To determine when s...

Monttea aphylla flowers simultaneously produce oil and nectar, rewards known to differentially attract ecologically and functionally distinct pollinators. We examined whether geographical differentiation occurred for rewards, and whether this could be explained by spatially heterogeneous pollinator guilds and climate. Rewards were measured across t...

Monttea aphylla flowers simultaneously produce oil and nectar, rewards known to differentially attract ecologically and functionally distinct pollinators. We examined whether geographical differentiation occurred for rewards, and whether this could be explained by spatially heterogeneous pollinator guilds and climate. Rewards were measured across t...

Aquí se presenta una propuesta didáctica dirigida a alumnos de nivel primario, basada en el uso de analogías y actividades lúdicas como herramientas educativas para abordar el estudio de los aparatos bucales de los insectos y su funcionamiento. A través de la misma, se buscó promover el conocimiento de los diferentes aparatos bucales de los insecto...

The moth family Sphingidae (hawkmoths, sphinx moths) has a cosmopolitan distribution. The adults range in size from small to very large and are generally nocturnal in activity, when they play an important ecological role as pollinators. The caterpillars are also noticeable for the large size many can reach and for the conspicuous caudal horn presen...

The effects of the present biodiversity crisis have been largely focused on the loss of species. However, a missed component of biodiversity loss that often accompanies or even precedes species disappearance is the extinction of ecological interactions. Here, we propose a novel model that (i) relates the diversity of both species and interactions a...

This is an educational proposal for elementary school students based on the use of analogies and play activities as educational tools for the study of insect mouthparts and their functions. Through it, we sought to promote knowledge of the different kinds of insect mouthparts in relation to their feeding habits, to spark students’ curiosity, and to...

Plant species that coexist and share pollinators may experience inter-specific competition for pollinator service or interference of improper pollen. To avoid the latter, plant species may use different areas of the pollinators´ body to deposit their pollen, either by different floral architectures or by different floral lengths. We evaluate here t...

Pollinator-mediated natural selection on single traits, such as corolla tube or spur length, has been well documented. However, flower phenotypes are usually complex, and selection is expected to act on several traits that functionally interact rather than on a single isolated trait. Despite the fact that selection on complex phenotypes is expected...

Direct physical confrontation among conspecifics for access to mates is a form of sexual selection well known among animals, but not thought to take place in plants. Consequently, no structures are known that can be considered as weapons that evolved under such confrontation. Pollinaria of milkweeds may physically compete for access to attachment p...

Background and AimsThe underlying evolutionary processes of pollinator-driven floral diversification are still poorly understood. According to the Grant-Stebbins model speciation begins with adaptive local differentiation in the response to spatial heterogeneity in pollinators. Although this crucial process links the micro- and macroevolution of fl...

Background and Aims The underlying evolutionary processes of pollinator-driven floral diversification are still poorly understood. According to the Grant –Stebbins model speciation begins with adaptive local differentiation in the response to spatial heterogeneity in pollinators. Although this crucial process links the micro-and macroevo-lution of...

Premise of research. Brood-site deceptive flowers use dishonest signals—especially floral odors that mimic oviposition substrates—to attract and deceive saprophilous insects to pollinate them. In this work, we recorded the pollinators of the sapromyiophilous species Jaborosa rotacea (Solanaceae) endemic to southern South America. Then, we character...

Interspecific phylogenies allow the understanding of species diversification processes and distribution patterns. In addition, phylogenetic trees are necessary to understand patterns of morphological and chromosome evolution, and allow ancestral characters and ancestral karyotype reconstructions. Here, we used a nuclear and chloroplast Nierembergia...

In order to assess the impact of precipitation changes during Pleistocene glaciations on plant species of the Patagonian steppe, a phylogeographical study of the endemic shrub Anarthrophyllum desideratum was performed. Southern Patagonia: Argentina and Chile. Chloroplast intergenic spacers trnS–trnG and rpoB–trnC were sequenced for 264 individuals...

In order to assess the impact of precipitation changes during Pleistocene glaciations on plant species of the Patagonian steppe, a phylogeographical study of the endemic shrub Anarthrophyllum desideratum was performed. Southern Patagonia: Argentina and Chile. Chloroplast intergenic spacers trnS–trnG and rpoB–trnC were sequenced for 264 individuals...

Indagar sobre la diferenciación interpoblacional de caracteres florales implicados en la interacción planta-polinizador, y sobre su relación con la divergencia de polinizadores a escala geográfica, es fundamental para dilucidar los factores que influyen en los procesos de adaptación y especialización biológica. Los sistemas conformados por plantas...

Summary: Characterization and spatio-temporal variation of nectar in Anarthrophyllum desideratum (Fabaceae): Influence of climate and pollinators. In this study we characterized the volume, concentration and sugar composition of floral nectar in Anarthrophyllum desideratum (DC) Benth., an endemic shrub from the Patagonian steppe pollinated by Passe...

The study of intraspecific differentiation of floral characters involved in plant-pollinator interaction, and of its relationship with biotic and abiotic factors is essential to elucidate the factors affecting biological adaptation and specialization. Systems involving oil-secreting plants and oil-collecting bees are considered one of the most spec...

Abstract Over the years, selection can vary in intensity and direction. Selection on traits related to the mechanical fit with pollinators is expected to vary according to changes in pollinator assemblage. Provided that pollinators do not change over time selection on traits related to attraction, such as floral fragrance, is expected to be mainly...

Interactions with pollinators are thought to play a significant role in determining whether plant species become invasive, and ecologically generalised species are predicted to be more likely to invade than more specialised species. Using published and unpublished data we assessed the floral biology and pollination ecology of the South American nat...

Some species of long-spurred orchids achieve pollination by a close association with long-tongued hawkmoths. Among them, several Habenaria species present specialized mechanisms, where pollination success depends on the attachment of pollinaria onto the heads of hawkmoths with very long proboscises. However, in the Neotropical region such moths are...

Background: In widely distributed species, geographic patterns of phenotypic variation can appear in a clinal (linear or central-marginal) or mosaic fashion in response to environmental factors.Aim: We assessed spatial patterns and possible abiotic drivers of flower and leaf variation in Anarthrophyllum desideratum, an endemic legume found througho...

In this study we characterized the volume, concentration and sugar composition of floral nectar in Anarthrophyllum desideratum (DC) Benth., an endemic shrub from the Patagonian steppe pollinated by Passerine birds, and we evaluated it spatio-temporal variation. We analyzed the differences among ecological areas, populations, plants and years, and t...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS The extreme complexity of asclepiad flowers (Asclepiadoideae-Apocynaceae) has generated particular interest in the pollination biology of this group of plants especially in the mechanisms involved in the pollination processes. This study compares two South American species, Morrenia odorata and Morrenia brachystephana, with resp...

The rate of pollen exchange within and among flowers may depend on pollinator attraction traits such as floral display size and flowering plant density. Variations in these traits may influence pollinator movements, pollen receipt, and seed number. To assess how floral display size and flowering plant density affect parameters of pollinator visitat...

Geographic pattern of phenotypic variation can appear in a clinal or a mosaic fashion and can evidence adaptive or non-adaptive variation. To shed light on the mechanisms underlying this variation, we studied the relationships between geographic variation of floral traits and both biotic and abiotic factors of the hummingbird-pollinated plant, Nico...