Artur Campos D. Maia

Federal University of Pernambuco | UFPE · Graduate Program in Animal Biology

Night-blooming cacti, primarily pollinated by bats and hawkmoths, also attract beetles seeking food and safe shelter for mating and brooding their offspring. The influence of flower density on beetle visitation rates remains unclear, with responses varying by species and environmental factors. In the Caatinga Seasonally Dry Tropical Forest, we stud...

Hydrophobic compounds present in the cuticular wax layer (CWL) of terrestrial arthropods protect them from dehydration and are also involved in chemical communication. However, the role of CWL compounds in the behavioral ecology of scorpions has been studied less often, with most investigations focusing on their responses to mechanical stimuli. In...

The Meliponini tribe is the most diverse group of social bees, thriving across tropical regions. Breeding stingless bees (meliponiculture) holds significant ecological and economic value. In meliponaries, multiple species often share small foraging areas, a scenario less common in natural environments. Due to deforestation, stingless bees face a di...

In this study we explore the biogeographic patterns and processes underlying the diversification of Sabal, a genus of palm with a range that expands from the tropical rainforests of northern South America into the deciduous subtropical forests of the southeastern United States. We estimate divergence times among species of Sabal using two dated fos...

Pollination by deception is assumed as the general rule among pleurothallid orchids. However, considering the exceptional diversity of this group (44 genera and over 5100 species) and the relatively limited number of available studies (pollination ecology has been assessed in only 17 genera), generalized trends about their pollination systems might...

Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests (SDTFs) have long suffered from chronic, intensive and extensive landscape transforma- tions due to human activities, challenging biodiversity conservation in this biome. The Caatinga is the largest Neotropical SDTF, serving as an excellent model to understand how land use changes modulate ecological communities. In...

A major question in evolutionary biology is what drives the diversification of lineages. Rapid, recent radiations are ideal systems for addressing how new species arise because they still show key morphological and ecological adaptations associated with speciation. While most studied recent radiations have evolved in an insular environment, less re...

A meliponicultura é uma atividade de grande importância econômica, socioambiental e cultural. Um dos seus maiores desafios é a infestação por moscas da espécie Pseudohypocera ker-teszi (Diptera: Phoridae). Atraídas principalmente por colônias fracas, essas moscas conseguem se desenvolver rapidamente em colônias hospedeiras, consumindo um dos princi...

Neotropical cyclocephaline beetles, a diverse group of flower-loving insects, significantly impact natural and agricultural ecosystems. In particular, the genus Cyclocephala, with over 350 species, displays polymorphism and cryptic complexes. Lacking a comprehensive DNA barcoding framework, accessible tools for species differentiation are needed fo...

Pollination by deception is assumed as the general rule among pleurothallid orchids. However, considering the exceptional diversity of these orchids (44 genera and over 5100 species) and the relatively limited number of available studies (pollination ecology has been assesed in only 17 genera), generalized trends about their pollination systems mig...

We provide a characterization of the floral scent chemistry of nine species of Philodendron present in French Guiana. The scent samples were obtained by dynamic headspace, in situ in French Guiana, or from plants in the living aroid collection at the Botanical Garden of the University of Brasilia. Overall, we identified 43 volatile organic compound...

Different species of Cyclocephala scarab beetles (Scarabaeidae, Dynastinae) perform key functional roles in both natural and agricultural systems, such as the cycling of organic matter and pollination, while also being known as destructive pests both as immatures and adults. Therefore, the identification of biological parameters is crucial for defi...

Cyclocephaline beetles are flower visitors attracted primarily by major floral volatiles. Addressing the identity of these volatile compounds is pivotal for understanding the evolution of plant-beetle interactions. We report the identification and field testing of the attractant volatiles from trumpet flowers, Brugmansia suaveolens (Willd.) Sweet (...

The reproductive success of most angiosperms depends on pollinators and a combination of floral traits, including olfactory cues, are involved in attracting these animals. The emission and chemical composition of floral volatile organic compounds (VOCs) is often associated with the sensory preferences of the most frequent floral visitors, however,...

Night-foraging cyclocephaline scarab beetles rely on floral structures of specific plant hosts for food and shelter, as well as mating sites. Although the role of floral fragrances as long-range attractants in these interactions has been elucidated, the mechanisms that mediate close-range mate discrimination in aggregations are still unclear. We re...

Floral colors and odors are evolutionary strategies used by plants to attract pollinating animals and may be absent in mostly anemophilous groups, such as Cyperaceae. However, considering that insects are floral visitors of some Rhynchospora species, the objective of this study was to characterize the floral traits and the pollination systems withi...

1. Food choice may change depending on sex, age, and physiological condition due to nutritional requirements or because of mechanisms that promote food recognition. Among dung beetles, some species are attracted to both carrion and dung, but why males and females are more attracted to either resource remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate...

Olfactory signaling is key to the reproductive biology of entomophilous palms. Both pollinating and specialized herbivorous insects are attracted to fragrance-emitting palm inflorescences that function as reliable food sources, as well as mating and oviposition sites. In the present study, we characterized the floral scent chemistry of the acuri pa...

Environmental changes alter the selective pressures acting on species, leading to different responses. Morphological variation can increase a species’ ability to occupy different habitats, persist in uncertain environments and stabilize its interactions with other species. We examined the morphological variation (wings, thorax and tibiae) of Eulaem...

In French Guiana, Philodendron fragrantissimum (Hook.) G.Don was specifically pollinated by a single species of night-active cyclocephaline scarab, Cyclocephala simulatrix Höhne. Its inflorescences exhibited short-lasting anthesis (~30 h) and characteristic floral traits such as floral thermogenesis, edible/nutritious floral tissues, and profuse fl...

Acrocomia aculeata is under accelerated domestication due to the high yield and quality of the oils obtained from the fruits. Key details about its reproduction and fruit production, notably its dependence on cross-pollination, have not been thoroughly assessed. In the course of three successive reproductive seasons, we investigated the phenology,...

The uncommon jasmone derivatives dehydrojasmone, isojasmol, and isojasmyl acetate, floral scent compounds from night-blooming Araceae, were synthesized in a scalable synthesis employing conjugate addition with a selenoacetal as the key step. The stereoselective strategy with subsequent enzymatic kinetic resolution allowed determining the absolute c...

- Several monoecious species of palms developed complex strategies to promote cross‐pollination including the production of large quantities of floral resources and the emission of scent that are attractive to pollinators. Syagrus coronata constitutes an interesting model with which to understand the evolution of plant reproductive strategies in a...

Chemical cues play an important role in short-range communication of butterflies, remarkably in sexual attraction and mate choice. Differentiated scale patches on the wings of male butterflies, the androconia, are involved in the emission of pheromones. Here, we describe the androconial morphology of six sympatric species of Neotropical sulphur but...

Perfume flowers (sensu Vogel) produce intense scents that function both as attractants and as the sole rewards for pollinators. The scent is collected exclusively by male euglossine bees and used during pre-mating behavior. Perfume flowers have evolved independently in 15 angiosperm families, with over 1,000 reported species across the Neotropical...

Beetles are a very diverse group of insects, both in terms of food habits and distribution across different habitats. Most of them live in the terrestrial environment, but many species are aquatic or semiaquatic. Although they are responsible for agricultural and public health damage, beetles are essential in several ecological processes and ecosys...

Para Colombia se ha estimado que existirían 65.000 especies de insectos, de las cuales 7000 serían coleópteros; sin embargo, trabajos recientes con algunas familias, muestran que la cifra sería mayor. Además, desempeñan un papel importante como polinizadores, ya que cerca del 73% de las especies de Angiospermas silvestres para las que se conoce el...

Defensive secretions of millipedes are remarkable for containing toxic quinones known to efficiently repell hematophagous arthropods. Here we show that Endangered blonde capuchin monkeys make use of such secretions. We (i) describe the anointing behavior performed by the monkeys (ii) identify the millipede species used in the process (iii) describe...

Solitary, dioecious, and mostly endemic to Andean cloud forests, wax palms (Ceroxylon Bonpl. ex DC. spp.) are currently under worrisome conservation status. The establishment of management plans for their dwindling populations rely on detailed biological data, including their reproductive ecology. As in the case of numerous other Neotropical palm t...

Erioscelis emarginata is a species of pollinator scarab beetle whose adults are predominantly associated with night-blooming aroid inflorescences (Araceae) of the Neotropical genus Thaumathophyllum, towards which they are attracted by volatile organic compounds (VOCs). It is assumed that olfactory preferences towards species-specific floral VOCs em...

Regardless of the ecological and economical importance of palms, their pollination strategies and the identities of their true pollinators are still contentious subjects. Bactris guineensis grows in open areas in lowland Caribbean Colombia. Its fruits have long been an important component of local economy and are now targeted for broader scale prod...

With 22 species, Ancognatha is the fourth most species-rich genus of Neotropical cyclocephaline scarabs (Melolonthidae, Cyclocephalini), an important group of anthophilous insects associated with palms (Arecaceae). Unlike other members of the tribe, which predominantly inhabit low-altitude ecosystems, Ancognatha spp. are most common in montane area...

The environmental unsustainability of African oil palm crops is a growing worldwide concern, and the macauba palm in tropical Southern America surges as the most viable substitute for the production of first‐generation biodiesel as a renewable fuel. Large‐scale cultivation of the macauba palm, however, is bound to suffer a major setback due to the...

Pollination ecology

Abstract Techniques for the survey of necrophagous dipterans are frequently designed for adult flies and often neglect forensically important information, such as the postfeeding larval dispersal following carcass colonization. In this study, we propose and test a novel trap design for the collection of dipteran larvae at the postfeeding stage. The...

Nocturnal flowering plants often release strong scents to attract their pollinators. Among night active flower visitors are cyclocephaline scarab beetles, which have been demonstrated to respond to uncommon volatile organic compounds released in high amounts by their host plants. In Araceae, the molecular structure of several such compounds is yet...

The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake. The description of subheadings of Figs. 4c and d have to be interchanged. Figure 4c shows the mass spectrum of (E)-4,8-dimethylnona-1,3,7-trien-5-yl acetate (4), while Fig. 4d shows the mass spectrum of (Z)-3-methylene- 2-(pent-2-en-1-yl)cyclopentyl acetate (3). The correct ver...

Background: 2-Alkyl-3-methoxypyrazines (MPs) are naturally occuring aromatic compounds involved in insect chemical communication as both pheromones and allelochemicals. Although rarely characterized in floral scents, they have been identified as major constituents in headspace samples from palm inflorescences and evidence pointed towards their fun...

A new species of the genus Beebeomyia Curran found in the northern coastal region of the state of Pernambuco, northeastern Brazil is described and illustrated, including characteristics of the male and female terminalia, third instar larva and puparium. This new species is only the second record for the genus in Brazil and broadens its occurrence t...

O buritizeiro (Mauritia flexuosa) floresce quase o ano todo, sendo as flores subutilizadas e pouco exploradas comercialmente. Teve-se como objetivo analisar a composição química e a aceitação sensorial da fragrância da flor masculina do buritizeiro, pelo sexo feminino. Para análise química os voláteis florais captados pela técnica de headspace dinâ...

‘Beauty bush’ and ‘twin flower’ are common names attributed to two well-recognizable species belonging to the genus Linnaea (16 spp.) – L. amabilis and L. borealis – long admired by botanists and gardeners for their perfumed paired bell-shaped flowers. In the present study, we investigated their floral scent compositions through gas chromatography...

Excrement scarcity is one of the main historical factors leading dung beetles to adapt to other food resources. In the Caatinga, a seasonally tropical dry forest, harsh environmental conditions seem to restrict the availability of food resources. In this scenario, the aim of our study was to experimentally investigate the attractiveness of differen...

The Neotropical aroid genus Xanthosoma (Caladieae, Araceae) embraces about 140 species of tuberous herbs whose night-blooming inflorescences emit strong, pleasant floral scents, presumably involved in the atttaction of pollinators. The number of studies on the floral scent chemistry of aroids, as well as on their role in pollinator attraction, has...

This is the first report on the chemical composition of the essential oil of the flowers of the white lotus (Nymphaea lotus, Nymphaeaceae). The relative configuration of its main constituent, the diterpenoid dolabella-3,7,18-triene, was determined to be (1R,3E,7E,11S,12S) on the basis of DFT DP4 13C-NMR quantitative chemical shift analysis. Both th...

In this study, the flowering mechanisms and pollination strategies of seven species of the highly diverse genus Homalomena (Araceae) were investigated in native populations of West Sarawak, Borneo. The floral scent compositions were also recorded for six of these species. The selected taxa belong to three out of four complexes of the section Cyrtoc...

Adults of Cyclocephala distincta are flower visitors of Neotropical palms (Arecaceae) and commonly found in the Atlantic Forest of Pernambuco, Brazil. Males and females were collected in the wild and subjected to captive rearing and breeding. The egg hatching rate, the life cycle, longevity of immatures and adults, and oviposition parameters in cap...

Este livreto é destinado aos agricultores e comunidades locais ligados ao cultivo da gravioleira e interessados em uma maior produtividade, tendo como base a proteção dos insetos polinizadores da cultura e de seu ambiente. A gravioleira (Annona muricata – Família Annonaceae) é uma árvore de pequeno porte, provavelmente, originária da América Centra...

The larval instars and pupa of Cyclocephala distincta Burmeister (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Dynastinae: Cyclocephalini) are described and compared to those of other known congenerics. Adult C. distincta, specialized flower visitors of Neo-tropical palms (Arecaceae), were collected in an area of native Atlantic Forest cover in the northeastern coast...

Cyclocephline scarabs and their host plants are documented as highly specialized plant–pollinator associations, with various fine-tuned adaptations. We studied the association between Philodendron adamantinum, a species endemic to the Espinhaço Range in Minas Gerais, South-East Brazil, and its exclusive pollinators. We focused on the pollination me...

We collected 76 specimens of the Cyclocephala celata Dechambre in Igarassu, Pernambuco, Brazil, in March 2008 for captive breeding and rearing to document its life cycle and to describe the immatures. A total of 98 eggs was obtained from captive-reared insects, each individually enclosed in an egg chamber assembled with the surrounding substrate. V...

The strongly fragrant thermogenic inflorescences of Taccarum ulei (Araceae) are highly attractive to night-active scarab beetles of Cyclocephala celata and C. cearae (Scarabaeidae, Cyclocephalini), which are effective pollinators of plants in the wild in northeastern Brazil. GC-MS analysis of headspace floral scent samples of T. ulei established th...

In order to obtain information on the biology of the masked chafer, Cyclocephala paraguayensis Arrow (Scarabaeidae: Dynastinae: Cyclocephalini), and its immature morphology, the beetle life cycle was studied under laboratory conditions. After field collection, adults were placed inside containers filled with soil obtained in the original capture to...

Taccarum ulei (Araceae, Spathicarpeae) is a seasonal geophytic aroid, native to north-eastern Brazil, that flowers during two months of the rainy season. Patterns of floral thermogenesis, pollination biology, and floral traits associated with pollination syndromes were studied and compared with those of other Araceae. Two species of cyclocephaline...

The Horto Botânico of Universidade Católica de Brasília (HBUCB) has been a centre for studies on aroids ever since it was established in 2004. In little over eight years it has amassed a comprehensive living aroid collection that now holds 53 genera and 317 species, many of which are only rarely cultivated (e.g. Scaphispatha, Philonotion, Lorenzia,...

Cyclocephaline scarabs are specialised scent-driven pollinators, implicated with the reproductive success of several Neotropical plant taxa. Night-blooming flowers pollinated by these beetles are thermogenic and release intense fragrances synchronized to pollinator activity. However, data on floral scent composition within such mutualistic interact...

Flower localization in darkness is a challenging task for nocturnal pollinators. Floral scents often play a crucial role in guiding them towards their hosts. Using common volatile compounds of floral scents, we trapped female nocturnal Megalopta-bees (Halictidae), thus uncovering olfactory cues involved in their search for floral resources. Applyin...

Eu estudei sistemas de polinização altamente especializados envolvendo aráceas Neotropicais e besouros escarabeídeos da tribo Cyclocephalini (Scarabaeidae, Dynastinae), e também elucidei aspectos da ontogenia e desenvolvimento embrionário de espécies do gênero Cyclocephala mantidas em cativeiro. Machos e fêmeas antófilos de Cyclocephala celata e C....

Philodendron acutatum (Araceae) is a hemiepiphyte common to the Atlantic Forest of northeastern Brazil. In two localities, we studied the species' breeding system and associations with flower-visiting insects, along with an analysis of its floral scent composition. The fruit set of self-incompatible P. acutatum was high, more than 90%, and inflores...

Occurrence and seasonality of buprestid beetles in a "Caatinga" Region in Northeastern Brazil Entomological surveys in the caatinga region are extremely rare, despite the impact caused to this biome due to the establishment of intensively irrigated agricultures. This study aimed to list beetles from the family Buprestidae in areas of the municipali...

Flowering, pollination ecology, and floral thermogenesis of Caladium bicolor were studied in the Atlantic Rainforest of Pernambuco, NE Brazil. Inflorescences of this species are adapted to the characteristic pollination syndrome performed by Cyclocephalini beetles. They bear nutritious rewards inside well-developed floral chambers and exhibit a the...

Foi abordada a biologia da polinização de aráceas cantarófilas nativas do estado de Pernambuco e a polinização natural da gravioleira (Annona muricata L., Annonaceae), uma frutífera largamente cultivada no estado. As áreas de estudo foram a Reserva Ecológica da Mata da Usina São José (município de Igarassu), a Estação Experimental de Itapirema (mun...

New evidence is presented to suggest that the monotypic genus Gearum (Araceae) may be truly cantharophilous, not myiophilous as suggested before. The credible pollinators in Gearum brasiliense are large scarab beetles of the species Cyclocephala celata, which were collected inside floral chambers of inflorescences between the female and the male ph...