Fungus gnat pollination in Arisaema urashima: the interplay of lethal traps and mutualistic nurseries.

Abstract

While most flowering plants engage in mutualistic interactions with their pollinators, Arisaema species employ a unique, seemingly antagonistic strategy by imprisoning and causing the pollinators to perish within their spathes. Recent studies have revealed that Arisaema thunbergii primarily relies on a fungus gnat, Leia ishitanii, with some individuals possibly escaping female spathes after oviposition. We investigated interactions between A. urashima and its pollinating fungus gnats, given that A. urashima is closely related to A. thunbergii. Specifically, we tested whether decaying A. urashima serve as brood-sites for some pollinators and whether these pollinators can escape seemingly lethal floral traps. We retrieved A. urashima spathes together with adult insect corpses trapped within the spathes and incubated the spathes to see if conspecific insects emerged. In addition, under laboratory conditions, we observed the escape behaviour of Sciophila yokoyamai, whose next-generation adults most frequently emerge from the decaying spathes. Our findings indicate that S. yokoyamai almost always escapes from the female spathe after oviposition while using the inflorescence as a nursery. In contrast, other pollinators of A. urashima, including Mycetophila spp., remain trapped and perished within the spathes. This study demonstrates that A. urashima spathes can function both as lethal traps and mutualistic nurseries, with outcomes differing among pollinator species. Our results also suggest that the contribution of certain pollinators to Arisaema reproduction is underestimated or even neglected, given that information on their pollinator assemblages has been based on floral visitors trapped within the inflorescences.