Профиль

De verdad os lo digo, leed este hilo porque es sencillamente excelente. 👇👇

Lysandra albicans, mi licénido favorito. De lo poco que se mueve por el campo estos días de pesadillescos calores (máximas de hasta 40ºC en plena sierra de Cazorla).

Let me introduce the main characters in this story, the Gladiolus and its two Metschnikowia yeasts

There is actually more to plant-pollinator interactions than plants and pollinators. Hidden in nectar live yeasts with a crucial activity. I found that yeasts reversed the gradient of nectar sugar concentration along Gladiolus inflorescences. Whole story in this preprint. doi.org/10.64898/202...

Flower engineering by yeasts: reversal of nectar sugar concentration gradient within Darwin's syndrome inflorescencesYeasts thriving in floral nectar have a proven ecological engineering capacity, as they modify the internal environment and the rewards of individual flowers in ways that influence how plants and pollinators interact. This floricentric perpective, however, produces only a partial view of the potential role of yeasts in plant-pollinator interactions, and little is known on their possible engineering effects on whole inflorescences. This study assessed yeast ability to shape features of the vertical inflorescences of Gladiolus illyricus (Iridaceae), a Darwin's syndrome plant (acropetalous protandrous flowers pollinated by insects foraging from bottom to top). When yeasts were excluded from inflorescences a declining gradient in nectar sugar concentration built up from the oldest, female-stage flowers at bottom up to the youngest, male-stage ones at top. This plant-intrinsic gradient was reversed in inflorescences with yeasts, where sugar concentration increased from the female-stage flowers harboring dense yeasts population to male-stage ones with few yeasts. The two species of yeasts involved ( Metschnikowi reukaufii and M. gruessii ) differed in their effects. Results add support to the growing consensus that specialized nectar yeasts can obfuscate intrinsic patterns of intra and interspecific variation in flowering features of plants at the level of individual flower, inflorescence, population and plant community. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, https://ror.org/05r0vyz12, CGL2010-15964 Junta de Andalucía, https://ror.org/01jem9c82, P09-RNM-4517doi.org

Estaba tardando en aparecer por Cazorla Zelus renardii, aka Chinche asesina norteamericana, aka Hylaeus-killer. Mis dos primeras vistas esta semana en inflorescencias de Eryngium campestre, una planta muy visitada por abejitas Hylaeus. Aquí está uno de ellos zampándose una hembra de H. variegatus

The early days of ecology and basic ecological concepts. This is Alfred Wallace's plain account of the immense tropical biodiversity he came across when collecting beetles in Borneo in 1855.

Son muy frecuentes durante la primera mitad del verano las especies de plantas con flores en tonos azulados/lilas (Lavandula, Cirsium, Klasea, Scabiosa ...). Todas ellas, sin excepción que yo conozca, son muy visitadas por mariposas. Aquí un buen ejemplo, Fabriciana adippe y Stachys officinalis.

Esta hembra de Xylocopa valga parece chica en comparación con la enormidad de la flor de azucena de mar (Pancratium maritimum). Carga polen mientras se cierne frente a la flor, sin detenerse mas que un instante en cada antera y sin parar las alas, un comportamiento poco habitual en esta gente.

The bee Ceylalictus variegatus (Halictidae) and the hoverfly Paragus quadrifasciatus (Syrphidae), two tiny floral visitors that can be seen these days on flowers of Cakile maritima (Brassicaceae) in seaside sand dunes of SW Iberia. Perhaps yet another example of mimic hoverfly.