The efficacy of co-evolution in determining the relationships
between plants with food-rewarding flowers and their pollinators is more
controversial. If co-evolution was an important process in the plant-butterfly
interaction system, the plants might have been expected to evolve so as to
preferentially attract butterflies and discourage visits of other insects
and/or to evolve morphological characteristics promoting the effectiveness of
butterflies in transferring pollen. Thus, the present study aims to reveal the
co-evolutionary relationship of four butterfly-pollinated flowers Cadaba fruticosa (L.) Druce, Caesalpinia
pulcherrima (L.) Sw., Clerodendrum infortunatum L. and Clerodendrum phlomidis
L.f. Though the nectar features and pollination biology have occurred
independently in different lines, their convergence is the result of the sugar
intake efficiency of specific pollinators, their digestive abilities and plant
adaptation to preferences. So, the nectar characteristics of these flowers are
studied and found a good correlation with butterfly-preferred nectars. The two
Colotis species oviposit on the leaves and flower buds and the larvae feed on
the same. Therefore, the occurrence of co-evolution can be imagined in this
Cadaba – Colotis system. The study revealed that the floral morphology of the
four plants Cadaba fruticosa, Ceaslpinia
pulcherrima, Clerodendrum phlomidis, and Clerodendrum infortunatum appears
highly labile and contrasts with the great similarity of sugar composition and
concentration measured in the butterfly flowers led to the conclusion for
existence of the co-evolutionary relationship with their butterfly pollinators.
Author
(s) Details
Meerabai
Guddeti
Department of Botany, Rayalaseema University, Kurnool, India.
Subbalakshmi
Ch.
Faculty in Botany, Narayana Schools (Medi-Sparks), Kurnool, India.
Please see the book here:- https://doi.org/10.9734/bpi/crpbs/v2/2013b
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