ONLINE IMAGE COLLECTION
 | | Image Title: Perfect fit? - A glossophagine bat (Anoura geoffroyi, Phyllostomidae) visiting Burmeistera sodiroana (Campanulaceae) | | AJB Editor: Judy Jernstedt, University of California - Davis | | Intended End User: Teacher, Student | | License Details: BSA - Terms for Image Use | | Copyright held by: Cooper/BSA | | For Larger Version (click here) | About the Image | A glossophagine bat (Anoura geoffroyi, Phyllostomidae) visiting Burmeistera
sodiroana (Campanulaceae) in a flight cage set up in the Bellavista Cloud
Forest Reserve, Pichincha Province, Ecuador. The flower morphology fits the
bat's head closely, allowing precise and consistent pollen placement on the
crown (note the spot of pollen from a previous visit). The well-exposed flowers
of this species and eight other Ecuadorian species of Burmeistera are
dull-colored and emit strong odors and were found to be highly specialized for
bat pollination; although bats and hummingbirds visited their flowers, only
bats effectively transferred pollen. Flowers of a tenth species, B. rubrosepala,
are bright red and yellow with narrow corolla apertures and no odor and were
exclusively hummingbird pollinated.
Link to
the AJB Abstract for the article:
The pollination biology of Burmeistera (Campanulaceae): specialization
and syndromes
by Nathan Muchhala |
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