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Interactions between, Camellia japonica and its Seed Predator Curculio camelliae
Author(s) -
Okamoto Motoharu
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
plant species biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.419
H-Index - 36
eISSN - 1442-1984
pISSN - 0913-557X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1442-1984.1988.tb00175.x
Subject(s) - curculio , biology , horticulture , botany , camellia , japonica , population , population density , curculionidae , demography , sociology
Seeds of Camellia japonica are heavily attacked by Curculio camelliae. To evaluate the efficacy of fruit wall thickness against the curculio attack, correlations of fruit wall thickness with the ratio of seed survival (RSS) and with the ratio of oviposition success of the curculio beetles (ROS) were investigated on fruits collected at Camellia stands in Kinki District. While ROS exhibited negative correlations with the thickness of fruit wall in every stand, RSS showed different modes in accordance with the population density of the curculio. At low density, no significant difference was seen in RSS between trees with thicker fruit wall and those with thinner ones; the latter trees, generally bearing many fruits, had more seeds surviving than the former, generally bearing a few fruits. In high density curculio populations, RSS values showed correlation with the thickness of the fruit wall and more seeds survived in trees with thicker fruit walls. These facts suggest that two contrasting behavioral traits are present in a single species C. japonica and their efficacies differ in accordance with the curculio density.