Open AccessEuropean Skipper Butterfly (<i>Thymelicus lineola</i>) Associated with Reduced Seed Development of Showy Lady’s-slipper Orchid (<i>Cypripedium reginae</i>)
Author(s) -
Peter Hall,
Paul M. Catling,
Paul Mosquin,
Ted Mosquin
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
canadian field-naturalist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.21
H-Index - 28
ISSN - 0008-3550
DOI - 10.22621/cfn.v131i1.1952
Subject(s) - pollinator , pollination , biology , population , botany , pollen , demography , sociology
It has been suggested that European Skipper butterflies (Thymelicus lineola) trapped in the lips of the Showy Lady’s-slipper orchid (Cypripedium reginae) may interfere with pollination. This could occur through blockage of the pollinator pathway, facilitation of pollinator escape without pollination, and/or disturbance of the normal pollinators. A large population of the orchid at an Ottawa Valley site provided an opportunity to test the interference hypothesis. The number of trapped skippers was compared in 475 post-blooming flowers with regard to capsule development and thus seed development. The presence of any skippers within flowers was associated with reduced capsule development (P = 0.0075), and the probability of capsule development was found to decrease with increasing numbers of skippers (P = 0.0271). The extent of a negative effect will depend on the abundance of the butterflies and the coincidence of flowering time and other factors. Counts of skippers trapped in flowers were found to follow closely a negative binomial distribution (P = 0.8656).