The floriphilic katydid, Phaneroptera brevis, is a frequent flower visitor of non-native, flowering forbs

By

Tan, Ming Kai
Lee, Hui
Tan, Hugh T. W.

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2019-5-17

Original Publication

Journal of orthoptera research : JOR

Volume

28

Series / Issue

Issue: 2

Pages

21--26

Subjects

florivores , flower visitor , optimal foraging , Orthoptera , resource concentration

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Philadelphia, Penn Orthopterists' Society 1992-

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/jor.28.33063

 

Abstract

Distribution of consumers in a patch of vegetation can be predicted by resource availability and explained by the resource-concentration and optimal-foraging hypotheses. These hypotheses have not been explored for flower-visiting Orthoptera because they are deemed less economically or ecologically important. Some flower-visiting orthopterans can provide pollination services, which warrants more attention. We studied a Singaporean, floriphilic katydid, Phaneropterabrevis, to investigate the following questions: 1) how frequently does P.brevis visit flowers compared to other flower visitors and 2) what factors predict the abundance of P.brevis? We collected abundance data for P.brevis and other flower-visiting arthropods and quantified seven environmental parameters, including flower abundance and host-plant species richness. We found that P.brevis frequents flowers significantly more often than some common and expected flower visitors such as hoverflies. In line with the prediction of the resource-concentration hypothesis, the abundance of P.brevis was positively correlated with a higher flower abundance. Owing to the limited information on unexpected wild flower visitors and pollinators, especially from the understudied tropics of Southeast Asia, we propose that P.brevis can be a model organism for future studies to answer fundamental questions on flower visitation.