Abstract Hoya floral characters are highly elaborate and associated with a complex and specialised pollination mechanism. The pollination of two Hoya species has been studied previously, but little is known about the specific nature and interactions between flower morphology, pollinators, and their environment. Here we investigate the pollination of Hoya pottsii, where pollinaria are transferred onto several insects’ legs and arolia including moths in the Erebidae family, ants, and a praying mantis. Hypopyra vespertilio (Erebidae, Erebinae) was the most effective at both carrying and depositing the pollinaria, Colobopsis leonardii (Formicidae) was shown to successfully insert only one pollinium whereas Hymenopus coronatus (Hymenopodidae) could only attach the pollinaria between its two euplantulae. Several Hoya species were used to compare the effectiveness of pollinaria removal and insertion, pollinator size which was correlated to strength, floral scent, and morphology of the guide rail. The floral scent was dominated by Linalool, Methyl benzoate and Benzaldehyde which are known to attract moth, other species displayed similar scents but also showed many different compounds. The effectiveness of a medium-sized moth in pollinating H. pottsii could be explained by the morphology of the guide rail which comprises a landing platform for the arolium. In Hoya carnosa the guide rail lacks a landing platform which could explain why stronger and larger moths were more effective in this species. The importance of the interaction between insect arolia and guide rails in the pollination of Hoya is illustrated and we suggest that their morphology corresponds with pollinator strength and how smoothly and precisely the pollinia can be inserted.

中文翻译：

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Hoya pottsii 的传粉者：最强的是最有效的吗？

摘要 霍亚花卉特征高度精细，与复杂而专业的授粉机制有关。先前已经研究了两种霍亚物种的授粉，但对花形态、传粉媒介及其环境之间的特定性质和相互作用知之甚少。在这里，我们调查了 Hoya pottsii 的授粉，在这种情况下，花粉被转移到几种昆虫的腿和 aroli 上，包括 Erebidae 科的飞蛾、蚂蚁和螳螂。Hypopyra vespertilio (Erebidae, Erebinae) 在携带和沉积花粉方面最有效，Colobopsis leonardii (Formicidae) 被证明只能成功插入一个花粉，而 Hymenopus coronatus (Hymenopodidae) 只能将花粉附着在其两个真植物之间。几个霍亚物种被用来比较去除和插入花粉的有效性、与强度、花香和导轨形态相关的传粉者大小。花香以芳樟醇、苯甲酸甲酯和苯甲醛为主导，它们会吸引飞蛾，其他种类也表现出相似的气味，但也表现出许多不同的化合物。中型蛾在为 H. pottsii 授粉的有效性可以通过导轨的形态来解释，导轨的形态包括 arolium 的着陆平台。在 Hoya carnosa 中，导轨缺少着陆平台，这可以解释为什么更强壮和更大的飞蛾在这个物种中更有效。