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Diversification in both the floral morphology and chemistry in two daciniphilous orchid ecotypes in Borneo

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Abstract

Morphological and floral chemical components are both important cues used by plants to attract pollinators. Two local ecotypes named ‘Nabawan’ and ‘Apin-Apin’ produced by the tropical orchid, Bulbophyllum ecornutum subspecies verrucatum, exhibit different morphology and scents to attract males of certain Bactrocera and Zeugodacus fruit fly species in the tribe Dacini as potential pollinators. Flowers of the Nabawan-ecotype possess a narrow-shaped lip (= labellum) structure and emit a characteristic fragrance of raspberry ketone along with smaller amounts of rhododendrol, whereas those of Apin-Apin-ecotype possess a broad-shaped lip and emit zingerone and zingerol as major components. Nevertheless, the structure of stiff hamulus appears similar and acts as a ‘crowbar’ during pollinarium removal by a fruit fly, indicating the basic mechanics of the movable see-saw lip structure to trap a fly is essentially the same. The changes in both morphology and chemistry, despite no significant difference in chloroplast DNA sequences, shown by the two ecotypes, might have occurred as part of a coevolutionary process involving both the Dacini fruit fly pollinators and the Bulbophyllum orchids in their natural habitats.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to express our sincere appreciation to the Manager of the Orchid Centre, Department of Agriculture, Tenom, Sabah, for the supply of orchid flowers; and to Prof D. Haymer, University of Hawaii at Manoa, for his critical comments on this manuscript. This work was partly supported by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from JSPS (No. 15405022 and 19310142 to RN; No. 26450466 to HO).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mobula Research Sdn. Bhd., 20, Jalan Tan Jit Seng, 11200, Tanjong Bungah, Penang, Malaysia

    Keng-Hong Tan

  2. Academy of Sciences Malaysia, MATRADE Tower, Jalan Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah, 50480, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Keng-Hong Tan

  3. JK Art and Science, Lauwerbes 8, 2318 AT, Leiden, the Netherlands

    Jaap J. Vermeulen

  4. Laboratory of Chemical Ecology, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 606-8502, Japan

    Tomoko Katte, Hajime Ono & Ritsuo Nishida

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  1. Keng-Hong Tan
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Correspondence to Ritsuo Nishida.

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Tan, KH., Vermeulen, J.J., Katte, T. et al. Diversification in both the floral morphology and chemistry in two daciniphilous orchid ecotypes in Borneo. Arthropod-Plant Interactions 15, 447–455 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11829-021-09821-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11829-021-09821-9

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