ORCHID FLORAL FRAGRANCES AND MALE EUGLOSSINE BEES: METHODS AND ADVANCES IN THE LAST SESQUIDECADE

¹ Department of Natural Sciences, Florida State Museum, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611
² Department of Botany, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611

All species of the Neotropical subtribes Stanhopeinae and Catasetinae (Orchidaceae) are pollinated exclusively by male euglossine bees which are attracted to and collect the floral fragrances. The orchid-euglossine bee relationship is often highly specific: the flower of a given species of plant may attract males of only one or a few species out of dozens of euglossine species in the habitat. This pollinator specificity is based upon species-specific combinations of floral fragrance compounds which attract only one or a few species of euglossine bees. Such pollinator specificity is an important reproductive isolating mechanism between sympatric interfertile species of orchids. The male bees are thought to use the collected floral fragrance compounds in their own reproductive biology, probably as precursors of their own sex pheromones.

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