Nectar robbing in the trainbearers (Lesbia, Trochilidae)
Nectar robbing in the trainbearers (Lesbia, Trochilidae)
Many flower visitors engage in floral larceny, a suite of so-called’illegitimate’visits in which foragers take nectar without providing pollination services. The data on prevalence of illegitimate visits among hummingbirds, as well as the total proportion of foraging and diet that such visits comprise is broadly lacking. Here, we report the occurrence of nectar larceny in the two currently recognized species of trainbearers and analyze the proportion of plant visits categorized by mode of interaction as: robbing, theft, and/or pollination. We augment our original field observations using a trove of data from citizen science databases. Although it is difficult to distinguish primary vs. secondary robbing and theft vs. pollination, we conservatively estimate that ca. 40% of the recorded nectar foraging visits involve nectar robbing. Males appear to engage in robbing marginally more than females, but further studies are necessary to confidently examine the multi-way interactions among sex, species, mode of visitation, and other factors. Our results also indicate that the suggested relationship between serrations on bill tomia and traits such as nectar robbing or territorial defense may be complicated. We discuss the significance of these findings in the context of recent developments in study of nectar foraging, larceny, and pollination from both avian and plant perspectives.
Feeding behavior, Floral larceny, Hummingbirds, Nectar robbing, Plant defense, Pollination, Pollination biology, Trainbearers
e9561
Igić, Boris
dd0ea63c-817f-45be-a44e-a75945a155f9
Nguyen, Ivory
5fbd9586-f6d6-444c-a6aa-e66c3a6543a4
Fenberg, Phillip
c73918cd-98cc-41e6-a18c-bf0de4f1ace8
12 August 2020
Igić, Boris
dd0ea63c-817f-45be-a44e-a75945a155f9
Nguyen, Ivory
5fbd9586-f6d6-444c-a6aa-e66c3a6543a4
Fenberg, Phillip
c73918cd-98cc-41e6-a18c-bf0de4f1ace8
Igić, Boris, Nguyen, Ivory and Fenberg, Phillip
(2020)
Nectar robbing in the trainbearers (Lesbia, Trochilidae).
PeerJ, 8, , [e9561].
(doi:10.7717/peerj.9561).
Abstract
Many flower visitors engage in floral larceny, a suite of so-called’illegitimate’visits in which foragers take nectar without providing pollination services. The data on prevalence of illegitimate visits among hummingbirds, as well as the total proportion of foraging and diet that such visits comprise is broadly lacking. Here, we report the occurrence of nectar larceny in the two currently recognized species of trainbearers and analyze the proportion of plant visits categorized by mode of interaction as: robbing, theft, and/or pollination. We augment our original field observations using a trove of data from citizen science databases. Although it is difficult to distinguish primary vs. secondary robbing and theft vs. pollination, we conservatively estimate that ca. 40% of the recorded nectar foraging visits involve nectar robbing. Males appear to engage in robbing marginally more than females, but further studies are necessary to confidently examine the multi-way interactions among sex, species, mode of visitation, and other factors. Our results also indicate that the suggested relationship between serrations on bill tomia and traits such as nectar robbing or territorial defense may be complicated. We discuss the significance of these findings in the context of recent developments in study of nectar foraging, larceny, and pollination from both avian and plant perspectives.
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Accepted/In Press date: 25 June 2020
e-pub ahead of print date: 12 August 2020
Published date: 12 August 2020
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
We are greatly indebted to iNaturalist & eBird projects, and all contributing natural history enthusiasts whose images and data enabled us to conduct this study. We thank Diego Emerson Torres for providing data and permission to use the image shown in Fig. 1. Ben Marks & John Bates (FMNH) provided advice and access to bird collections, and Cathy Rushworth & Carl Rothfels provided generous help with plant species identification. Rainee Kaczorowski, an anonymous reviewer, and Mason-Gamer-Igic lab groups provided comments and edits, which improved the manuscript. Jackie Treehorn, a park ranger, fixed the cable. This work was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation NSF DEB-1655692 to Boris Igi? and Royal Society Grant RG160700 to Phillip B. Fenberg. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The following grant information was disclosed by the authors: National Science Foundation (NSF): DEB-1655692. Royal Society: RG160700.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Igić et al.
Keywords:
Feeding behavior, Floral larceny, Hummingbirds, Nectar robbing, Plant defense, Pollination, Pollination biology, Trainbearers
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 443911
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/443911
ISSN: 2167-8359
PURE UUID: c1c03cb0-0ed6-4bef-b640-d2e827834820
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Date deposited: 16 Sep 2020 16:35
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:34
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Author:
Boris Igić
Author:
Ivory Nguyen
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