Description
We investigated the diversity and behaviors of flower visiting insects to all four native species of genus Melastoma (Family Melastomataceae) at the Fushan Botanical Garden in Taiwan biweekly from May to August 2020. Insect-flower interactions were assigned into three categories based on the insect’s behaviors observed in the field. The aim of the project was to provide baseline data of pollinator-plant interactions between the endangered M. intermedia and sympatric Melastoma species. Such information is useful in generating conservation and management actions as interspecific hybridization has been reported from both wild and cultivated populations in this genus.
Data Records
The data in this occurrence resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 911 records.
This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.
Versions
The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.
How to cite
Researchers should cite this work as follows:
Huang J C C, Hsieh Y C, Lu S S, Yeh W C, Liang J Y, Lin C J, Tung G S (2020): Flower visiting insects of Melastoma in Taiwan. v1.8. Taiwan Forestry Research Institute. Dataset/Occurrence. https://ipt.taibif.tw/resource?r=taiwanmelastomapollinator&v=1.8
Rights
Researchers should respect the following rights statement:
The publisher and rights holder of this work is Taiwan Forestry Research Institute. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC 4.0) License.
GBIF Registration
This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: 51b39c28-ce6f-4c7f-ba01-261748411e31. Taiwan Forestry Research Institute publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by Taiwan Biodiversity Information Facility.
Keywords
Buzz pollination; Lasioglossum; Maculonomia; Melastoma intermedia; sonication
Contacts
- Metadata Provider ●
- Originator ●
- Point Of Contact
http://orcid.org/https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5081-5900
- Originator
- Originator
- Originator
- Originator
- Originator
- Originator
- Point Of Contact ●
- Principal Investigator
Geographic Coverage
Fushan Botanical Garden, Yilan County, northeastern Taiwan
| Bounding Coordinates | South West [24.755, 121.595], North East [24.755, 121.595] |
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Taxonomic Coverage
63 insect species belong to 7 orders that associated with 5 Melastoma plant species, including a horticultural hybrid
| Class | Insecta (insect) |
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| Order | Coleoptera (beetle), Hymenoptera (bee, wasp, hornet), Diptera (fly, midge), Hemiptera (bug, plant hopper), Lepidoptera (moth, butterfly, caterpillar), Blattodea (cockroach), Orthoptera (grasshopper, cricket) |
Temporal Coverage
| Start Date / End Date | 2020-05-07 / 2020-08-19 |
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Project Data
We investigated the diversity and behaviors of flower visiting insects to all four native species of genus Melastoma (Family Melastomataceae) at the Fushan Botanical Garden in Taiwan biweekly from May to August 2020. Insect-flower interactions were assigned into three categories based on the insect’s behaviors observed in the field. The aim of the project was to provide baseline data of pollinator-plant interactions between the endangered M. intermedia and sympatric Melastoma species. Such information is useful in generating conservation and management actions as interspecific hybridization has been reported from both wild and cultivated populations in this genus.
| Title | Checklist of flower visiting insects to genus Melastoma (Myrtales: Melastomataceae) at the Fushan Botanical Garden, Taiwan |
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| Funding | Project of Future Plants |
| Study Area Description | Established in 1990, Fushan Botanical Garden (FBG) (24°45'21.2"N 121°35'43.5"E) is located in the mountain area in the northeast part of Taiwan Island. The garden is part of the Fushan Experimental Forest, which covers approximately 1,098 ha. The vegetation is characterized mainly by natural broad-leaved forest, dominated by trees of families Lauraceae and Fagaceae (Su et al. 2010). The region has a subtropical monsoon climate and is generally humid throughout the year. The mean temperature of 18.4 ℃ ranging from 10 ℃ to 30 ℃, and peaks in the summer season (June-August). The annual rainfall is 3,787 mm, with more rain during the Typhoon season (late August-October) (Lu and Huang 2013). The study was conducted at the garden’s nursery and trails surrounded. |
The personnel involved in the project:
- Principal Investigator
Sampling Methods
Diversity data of flower visiting insects to Melastome were obtained biweekly at FBG from May 07, 2020 to August 19, 2020. Four melastome species were picked, namely Melastoma affine D. Don, M. candidum D. Don, M. intermedia Dunn, and M. scaberrima (Hayata) Yang & Liu, 2002. For M. candidum, we included both the typical purple-flowered form and the white-flowered variant (M. candidum var. albiflorum). Melastoma affine is the only native melastome species known in this area. Ten wild M. affine individuals were selected along the trails adjacent to the nursery. For the rest species, including the white flower variant of M. candidum, 10-15 planted individuals for each type/species in the nursery were selected. For each survey session, observation of insects began from c. 45 mins from the sunrise and usually ended at 11:00 am for 2 consecutive days. Additional records of flower visiting insects out of the regular survey time were also included to maximize our understanding of the diversity of flower visiting insects. Taxa and behaviors (see the next section for the details) of insects with body length > 3 mm on the adaxisal surface of flowers were recorded. Insects were identified visually in the field to at least family level. For insects that cannot be identified in the field, a few samples of each morpho species were collected using a butterfly hand net. All Insect species were identified morphologically following existing keys (Starr 1992, Dubitzky et al. 2008, Hsu et al. 2018) and by comparisons with the insect specimen collection in Taiwan Forestry Research Institute.
| Study Extent | Established in 1990, Fushan Botanical Garden (FBG) (24°45'21.2"N 121°35'43.5"E) is located in the mountain area in the northeast part of Taiwan Island. The garden is part of the Fushan Experimental Forest, which covers approximately 1,098 ha. |
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Method step description:
- Diversity data of flower visiting insects to Melastome were obtained biweekly at FBG from May 07, 2020 to August 19, 2020. Four melastome species were picked, namely Melastoma affine D. Don, M. candidum D. Don, M. intermedia Dunn, and M. scaberrima (Hayata) Yang & Liu, 2002. For M. candidum, we included both the typical purple-flowered form and the white-flowered variant (M. candidum var. albiflorum). Melastoma affine is the only native melastome species known in this area. Ten wild M. affine individuals were selected along the trails adjacent to the nursery. For the rest species, including the white flower variant of M. candidum, 10-15 planted individuals for each type/species in the nursery were selected. For each survey session, observation of insects began from c. 45 mins from the sunrise and usually ended at 11:00 am for 2 consecutive days. Additional records of flower visiting insects out of the regular survey time were also included to maximize our understanding of the diversity of flower visiting insects. Taxa and behaviors (see the next section for the details) of insects with body length > 3 mm on the adaxisal surface of flowers were recorded. Insects were identified visually in the field to at least family level. For insects that cannot be identified in the field, a few samples of each morpho species were collected using a butterfly hand net. All Insect species were identified morphologically following existing keys (Starr 1992, Dubitzky et al. 2008, Hsu et al. 2018) and by comparisons with the insect specimen collection in Taiwan Forestry Research Institute.
Collection Data
| Collection Name | Forest Arthropod Collection of Taiwan |
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| Specimen preservation methods | Pinned |
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Additional Metadata
| Alternative Identifiers | 51b39c28-ce6f-4c7f-ba01-261748411e31 |
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| https://ipt.taibif.tw/resource?r=taiwanmelastomapollinator |