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Comparative morphology of the mouthparts of the megadiverse South African monkey beetles (Scarabaeidae: Hopliini): feeding adaptations and guild structure

Although anthophilous Coleoptera are regarded to be unspecialised flower-visiting insects, monkey beetles (Scarabaeidae: Hopliini) represent one of the most important groups of pollinating insects in South Africa’s floristic hotspot of the Greater Cape Region. South African monkey beetles are known...

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Autores principales: Karolyi, Florian, Hansal, Teresa, Krenn, Harald W., Colville, Jonathan F.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4727957/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26819850
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1597
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author Karolyi, Florian
Hansal, Teresa
Krenn, Harald W.
Colville, Jonathan F.
author_facet Karolyi, Florian
Hansal, Teresa
Krenn, Harald W.
Colville, Jonathan F.
author_sort Karolyi, Florian
collection PubMed
description Although anthophilous Coleoptera are regarded to be unspecialised flower-visiting insects, monkey beetles (Scarabaeidae: Hopliini) represent one of the most important groups of pollinating insects in South Africa’s floristic hotspot of the Greater Cape Region. South African monkey beetles are known to feed on floral tissue; however, some species seem to specialise on pollen and/or nectar. The present study examined the mouthpart morphology and gut content of various hopliine species to draw conclusions on their feeding preferences. According to the specialisations of their mouthparts, the investigated species were classified into different feeding groups. Adaptations to pollen-feeding included a well-developed, toothed molar and a lobe-like, setose lacinia mobilis on the mandible as well as curled hairs or sclerotized teeth on the galea of the maxillae. Furthermore, elongated mouthparts were interpreted as adaptations for nectar feeding. Floral- and folial-tissue feeding species showed sclerotized teeth on the maxilla, but the lacinia was mostly found to be reduced to a sclerotized ledge. While species could clearly be identified as floral or folial tissue feeding, several species showed intermediate traits suggesting both pollen and nectar feeding adaptations. Mismatches found between mouthpart morphology and previously reported flower visiting behaviours across different genera and species requires alternative explanations, not necessarily associated with feeding preferences. Although detailed examinations of the mouthparts allowed conclusions about the feeding preference and flower-visiting behaviour, additional morphological and behavioural investigations, combined with greater taxon sampling and phylogenetic data, are still necessary to fully understand hopliine host plant relationships, related to monkey beetle diversity.
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spelling pubmed-47279572016-01-27 Comparative morphology of the mouthparts of the megadiverse South African monkey beetles (Scarabaeidae: Hopliini): feeding adaptations and guild structure Karolyi, Florian Hansal, Teresa Krenn, Harald W. Colville, Jonathan F. PeerJ Animal Behavior Although anthophilous Coleoptera are regarded to be unspecialised flower-visiting insects, monkey beetles (Scarabaeidae: Hopliini) represent one of the most important groups of pollinating insects in South Africa’s floristic hotspot of the Greater Cape Region. South African monkey beetles are known to feed on floral tissue; however, some species seem to specialise on pollen and/or nectar. The present study examined the mouthpart morphology and gut content of various hopliine species to draw conclusions on their feeding preferences. According to the specialisations of their mouthparts, the investigated species were classified into different feeding groups. Adaptations to pollen-feeding included a well-developed, toothed molar and a lobe-like, setose lacinia mobilis on the mandible as well as curled hairs or sclerotized teeth on the galea of the maxillae. Furthermore, elongated mouthparts were interpreted as adaptations for nectar feeding. Floral- and folial-tissue feeding species showed sclerotized teeth on the maxilla, but the lacinia was mostly found to be reduced to a sclerotized ledge. While species could clearly be identified as floral or folial tissue feeding, several species showed intermediate traits suggesting both pollen and nectar feeding adaptations. Mismatches found between mouthpart morphology and previously reported flower visiting behaviours across different genera and species requires alternative explanations, not necessarily associated with feeding preferences. Although detailed examinations of the mouthparts allowed conclusions about the feeding preference and flower-visiting behaviour, additional morphological and behavioural investigations, combined with greater taxon sampling and phylogenetic data, are still necessary to fully understand hopliine host plant relationships, related to monkey beetle diversity. PeerJ Inc. 2016-01-21 /pmc/articles/PMC4727957/ /pubmed/26819850 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1597 Text en © 2016 Karolyi et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Animal Behavior
Karolyi, Florian
Hansal, Teresa
Krenn, Harald W.
Colville, Jonathan F.
Comparative morphology of the mouthparts of the megadiverse South African monkey beetles (Scarabaeidae: Hopliini): feeding adaptations and guild structure
title Comparative morphology of the mouthparts of the megadiverse South African monkey beetles (Scarabaeidae: Hopliini): feeding adaptations and guild structure
title_full Comparative morphology of the mouthparts of the megadiverse South African monkey beetles (Scarabaeidae: Hopliini): feeding adaptations and guild structure
title_fullStr Comparative morphology of the mouthparts of the megadiverse South African monkey beetles (Scarabaeidae: Hopliini): feeding adaptations and guild structure
title_full_unstemmed Comparative morphology of the mouthparts of the megadiverse South African monkey beetles (Scarabaeidae: Hopliini): feeding adaptations and guild structure
title_short Comparative morphology of the mouthparts of the megadiverse South African monkey beetles (Scarabaeidae: Hopliini): feeding adaptations and guild structure
title_sort comparative morphology of the mouthparts of the megadiverse south african monkey beetles (scarabaeidae: hopliini): feeding adaptations and guild structure
topic Animal Behavior
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4727957/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26819850
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1597
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