Abstract The pollination systems of columnar cacti in the dry tropics are often thought to be highly specialized to bats. This specialization is generally inferred when flowers that are only exposed to the activity of nocturnal visitors set fruit and seed. Although moths are also common visitors to the flowers of columnar cacti at night, it is generally thought that their contribution to the reproductive success of this cactus is negligible. Using selective exclusions, we assessed the contribution of bats and moths to the reproductive success in a population of Pilosocereus leucocephalus in central Mexico. Fruit set was 100% for bat-pollinated flowers and 34% in moth-pollinated flowers. Seed number per fruit was 1473 in bat-pollinated and 836 in moth pollinated flowers. Our results clearly show that in addition to bats, moths are effective pollinators of Pilosocereus leucocephalus in the study area. Therefore, bats are the main pollinators of P. leucocephalus, and moths are the secondary pollinators.

中文翻译：

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蝙蝠和飞蛾有助于柱状仙人掌 Pilosocereus leucocephalus 的繁殖成功

摘要 干燥热带地区柱状仙人掌的授粉系统通常被认为是蝙蝠高度特化的。当花朵仅暴露于夜间访客的活动时，通常会推断出这种专业化结果和种子。虽然飞蛾也是夜间柱状仙人掌花朵的常见访客，但人们普遍认为，它们对这种仙人掌繁殖成功的贡献可以忽略不计。我们使用选择性排除方法评估了蝙蝠和飞蛾对墨西哥中部 Pilosocereus leucocephalus 种群繁殖成功的贡献。蝙蝠授粉的花的坐果率为 100%，飞蛾授粉的花的坐果率为 34%。每个果实的种子数在蝙蝠授粉的花中为 1473，在蛾授粉的花中为 836。我们的结果清楚地表明，除了蝙蝠，飞蛾是研究区Pilosocereus leucocephalus 的有效传粉者。因此，蝙蝠是P. leucocephalus 的主要传粉者，飞蛾是次要传粉者。