Os beija-flores, por serem aves altamente especializadas na exploração de néctar e possuírem uma das maiores taxas metabólicas dentre os endotermos, são altamente dependentes de estratégias que otimizem a utilização dos recursos disponíveis no meio. Depreende-se, assim, que uma memória detalhada dos diferentes aspectos de seus recursos alimentares seja um importante componente do seu sucesso alimentar. Estudos recentes têm mostrado que alguns animais não humanos exibem a capacidade de lembrar \"onde\" e \"quando\" eventos específicos (\"o quê\") ocorreram. Considera-se que o conhecimento concomitante sobre \"o quê\", \"onde\" e \"quando\" caracteriza um tipo de memória denominada \"memória episódica\", considerada, até então, privativa de seres humanos. A proposta do presente trabalho foi avaliar (1) a preferência de beija-flores das espécies Amazilia lactea e Eupetomena macroura por duas concentrações de solução de sacarose (\"o quê\"); na espécie E. macroura (2) sua memória espacial (\"onde\") e sua memória sobre pistas intrínsecas associadas à fonte alimentar (\"o quê\"); e (3) sua capacidade de se recordar da hora do dia (\"quando\") associada à localização espacial (\"onde\") e à cor de alimentadores (\"o quê\"). Os resultados mostraram que os beija-flores são capazes de processar informações sobre \"o quê\", \"quando\" e \"onde\" de seus recursos alimentares e que utilizam essas informações flexivelmente quando confrontados com diferentes situações experimentais, exibindo, assim, conhecimento sobre os principais elementos que caracterizam uma memória do tipo-episódica. / Hummingbirds are highly specialized for nectar consumption as a main food source. Since these animals exhibit one of the highest metabolic rates among endoterms, they depend on strategies that optimize the use of the available food resources. Therefore, a detailed memory for the location, quality and time of food availability is likely to be an important component of their feeding strategies and success. Recent studies have shown that some non-human animals exhibit the capacity of remembering \"where\" and \"when\" specific events (\"what\") occurred. Simultaneous recalling of \"what\", \"where\" and \"when\" specific events occurred characterizes a kind of memory known as \"episodic-memory\", considered, until recently, exclusive to humans. This study aimed at evaluating (1) the preference for either 20 or 40% sucrose solutions (\"what\") by exemplars of Amazilia lactea and Eupetomena macroura hummingbirds, (2) the memory for spatial locations (\"where\") and for intrinsic cues (\"what\") associated with food resources by exemplars of E. macroura, and (3) the ability of exemplars of E. macroura to learn an association including the time of day (\"when\") spatial locations (\"where\") offered profitable colored feeders (\"what\"). The results showed that the hummingbirds are capable of memorizing information about \"what\", \"when\" and \"where\" food resources are available and of using this information flexibly. Therefore, these results clearly indicate that hummingbirds exhibit an episodic-like type of memory.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Wyoming, 2008. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on August 9, 2009). Includes bibliographical references (p. 160-199).

Erythrina crista-galli L. and Erythrina falcata Benth. are the only two native species of corticeira from RS State. From 2004 to 2005, floral visitors, possible pollinators and phenology of those two species were studied at urban region of Santa Maria. On 42h of observations, 2750 visitors were registered on E. crista-galli. Apidae bees, Trigona spinipes (Fabricius, 1793) and Apis mellifera (Linnaeus, 1758) were the most frequent, being the probable pollinators, followed by wasps, ants, flies, beetles and butterflies. Besides insects, hummingbirds of the Trochilidae family were observed: Chlorostilbon aureoventris (d Orbigny and Lafresnaye, 1838), Amazilia versicolor (Vieillot, 1818) and Melanotrochilus fuscus (Vieillot, 1817). E. crista-galli flourishes from October to December. The anthesis is diurnal and lasts 5 days. On 40h of observations, 1238 floral visitors were registered on E. falcata, belonging to the same taxonomic groups registered for the previous species. The hummingbirds were the most frequent floral visitors and were considered pollinators of this species. E. falcata flourishes from September to November. The anthesis is diurnal and lasts 4 days. Handmade pollination tests results showed that E. crista-galli and E. falcata are autocompatible. The use of these two plant species is suggested as conservation strategy for pollinators native fauna species at urban and forestry environments. / Erythrina crista-galli L. e Erythrina falcata Benth. são as duas únicas espécies de corticeira nativas do RS. Durante o período de 2004 e 2005, foram estudados os visitantes florais, possíveis polinizadores e a fenologia dessas duas espécies, em ambiente urbano de Santa Maria. Em 42h de observação, 2750 visitantes foram registrados em E. crista-galli. Abelhas Apidae, Trigona spinipes (Fabricius, 1793) e Apis mellifera (Linnaeus, 1758) mostraram-se os mais freqüentes, sendo os prováveis polinizadores. Além delas apareceram vespas, formigas, moscas, besouros e borboletas. Além dos insetos, foram observados beija-flores da família Trochilidae: Chlorostilbon aureoventris (d Orbigny and Lafresnaye, 1838), Amazilia versicolor (Vieillot, 1818) e Melanotrochilus fuscus (Vieillot, 1817). A floração de E. crista-galli ocorreu de outubro a dezembro. A antese floral é diurna e dura 5 dias. Em 40h de observações, 1238 visitantes florais foram registrados em E. falcata, pertencentes aos mesmos grupos taxonômicos registrados na espécie anterior. Os beija-flores foram os mais freqüentes dos visitantes florais e considerados os polinizadores desta espécie. A floração de E. falcata ocorreu de setembro a novembro. A antese é diurna e dura 4 dias. Os resultados de polinização manual mostraram que E. crista-galli e E. falcata são autocompatíveis. Sugere-se o uso dessas duas espécies de plantas como estratégia de conservação de fauna nativa de espécies polinizadoras em ambientes urbanos e de reflorestamento

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:30:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 6258.pdf: 7218971 bytes, checksum: e6ed20556acbc44db730d03ac42e36d1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-03-28 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / Flowering phenology of plants are the main factor controlling hummingbird community organization, and it evolves in a given area as a unit in such a manner that the presence of a plant species can affect the phenology of other plant species. Nowadays there is little information available on the dynamics of biological communities in the Caatinga. The objective of the present study was to describe the temporal distribution in species richness and abundance of hummingbirds, and also in their reproductive activities, molt cycle, richness of flowering ornithophilous and non ornithophilous plant species, verifying the influence of the availability of flowering resources and of climatic factors in the dynamics and in the annual cycle of the hummingbird assemblage during a two year period study in an area of Caatinga. We also present morphometric data. The study was conducted in an area of shrubarboreal caatinga vegetation, located at Serra do Pará, municipality of Santa Cruz do Capibaribe, Pernambuco, Brazil. Hummingbird abundance varied seasonally, with peaks being observed during the rainy season. Temperature had a negative effect on both the species richness and abundance of hummingbirds. The dynamics of the hummingbird assemblage at Serra do Pará was influenced by resource availability, with abundance being higher during periods of lower temperatures and when higher numbers of non ornithophilous plants were flowering. Reproductive activity was evident during the rainy season. Molt, especially contour feathers and flight feathers occurring simultaneously was concentrated after the rainy season in the studied area. The assembly studied presented a bimodal cycle in reproductive activity and molt, which in turn were associated with flower availability. These two events were in asynchrony, with molt cycles beginning after the reproductive period. The hummingbird assembly was morphologically characterized by the three sub-groups known for the Trochilinae, presenting small short-billed species, medium-sized with straight bills species, and the medium to large with long bills species. The information presented in this study contribute with ecological and morphological characteristics of some hummingbird species distributed within the Caatinga, and also new information on hummingbird dynamics and their annual cycles in an area of Caatinga. / A fenologia de floração das plantas é o fator limitante que atua tanto na dinâmica quanto na organização das comunidades de beija-flores. Ela evolui como uma unidade em diferentes localidades, de tal maneira que a presença de uma planta pode afetar a fenologia de outras espécies. O conhecimento que se tem atualmente sobre a dinâmica e o funcionamento de comunidades biológicas na Caatinga é praticamente inexistente. O objetivo do presente estudo foi descrever a distribuição temporal da riqueza e da abundância de espécies de beija-flores, dos eventos de muda e da atividade reprodutiva, da riqueza de recursos florísticos ornitófilos e não ornitófilos, além de verificar a influência da disponibilidade desses recursos e de fatores abióticos sobre a dinâmica e o ciclo anual dos beija-flores durante dois anos em uma área de Caatinga. Apresentamos também dados morfométricos dos beijaflores. O estudo foi realizado em uma área de caatinga arbustivo-arbórea, localizada na Serra do Pará, município de Santa Cruz do Capibaribe, agreste de Pernambuco. A abundância de beija-flores variou sazonalmente, com picos durante a estação chuvosa. A temperatura teve um efeito negativo tanto sobre a riqueza quanto sobre a abundância dos beija-flores. A dinâmica da assembleia de beija-flores na Serra do Pará foi influenciada pela disponibilidade de recursos, sendo os períodos de maior abundância dos beija-flores aqueles com maior riqueza de recursos não ornitófilos em floração, e temperaturas mais amenas. A estação reprodutiva foi evidenciada durante a estação chuvosa na área de estudos. O período de maior ocorrência das mudas, especialmente de contorno e de voo simultaneamente, foi logo após o período de chuvas na região. A assembleia estudada apresentou dois ciclos de reprodução e de muda, os quais foram associados à disponibilidade de recursos florísticos. As atividades reprodutivas e de muda foram assincrônicas, com o ciclo de mudas tendo início logo após a estação reprodutiva. A assembleia de beija-flores foi caracterizada morfologicamente pelos três subgrupos reconhecidos de Trochilinae, apresentando espécies de tamanho pequeno, mediano e grande. As informações apresentadas no presente trabalho contribuem para o conhecimento das características ecológicas e morfométricas de algumas espécies de beija-flores com ocorrência na Caatinga, além de trazer informações inéditas quanto à dinâmica e o ciclo biológico anual dos beija-flores em uma área de Caatinga.

In recent decades expanding land-use change has caused extensive deforestation of the tropical rainforestinducing large-scale transformation of the landscape patterns across the South American continent. Landscapechange is a modification process of the natural forest cover into fragments which generate various ecologicalimpacts. Habitat loss is identified to be a major threat to biodiversity, as it exposes species to the risk ofextinction. This study investigates 80 locations within tropical rainforest biomes to examine the landscape changewhich has occurred from 1993 – 2014. The intention is to identify the impacts of landscape fragmentation onhummingbird species diversity by spatial landscape analysis in GIS and regression modeling. The analysis foundthat there is no relationship between deforestation and reduction of hummingbird diversity. The results indicatethat hummingbird species are not particularly sensitive to landscape change as they have high resilience in regardto forest fragmentation. A potential threshold value of deforestation degree could be identified, up to whichhummingbird species richness increased, but locations subjected to over 40% fragmentation were estimated tohave lower hummingbird diversity. However, by using the spatial explicit biological data, the analysis indicatethat an extinction debt may exist in the landscape, and that future extinctions may be expected to occur in thefollowing decades as consequence of deforestation. Other factors may be as important determining variables forspecies richness: the spatial scale of the study, the habitat connectivity, hummingbird generalist tendencies.Conclusively, identification of the key factors of deforestation impacts on species diversity is essential for futureefficiency in conservation planning and sustainability of the tropical rainforest biodiversity.

Orientador: Marlies Sazima / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Biologia / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-18T10:40:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Nunes_CarlosEduardoPereira_M.pdf: 3075640 bytes, checksum: 8c8e6ebb163696132631f8d237a31037 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Resumo: Neste trabalho foi estudada a biologia da polinização e da reprodução de duas espécies de orquídeas do gênero Elleanthus. A fenologia reprodutiva de Elleanthus brasiliensis e E. crinipes é anual. As flores de E. brasiliensis apresentam sépalas de coloração rosada, pétalas e labelo brancos com duas manchas lilases no labelo, ao passo que as de E. crinipes possuem pétalas e labelo de coloração creme e a antera operculada lilás - ambas abrem seqüencialmente e duram de dois a quatro dias. O néctar destas espécies é produzido nos calos do labelo em volumes que variam de 1 a 6 ?L, a concentração de açúcares é de ca. de 20% e a análise do néctar mostrou a presença de sacarose, glicose e frutose, com predominância de sacarose. Estas espécies apresentam protandria caracterizada pela mudança de posição dos elementos reprodutivos, são autocompatíveis, mas dependem de polinizadores para reprodução. Os principais polinizadores são os beija-flores Ramphodon naevius e Thalurania glaucopis. Vários dos atributos florais destas espécies são característicos para polinização por beija-flores. Em E. brasiliensis, estudos histológicos evidenciaram a natureza secretora dos calos apresentando uma epiderme papilosa secretora com uma cutícula fina e um parênquima também secretor. Os estudos histoquímicos mostraram a presença de pré-néctar nas células da epiderme e do parênquima dos calos. É interessante ressaltar que a histologia desses nectários não é conhecida para a tribo Sobralieae e se distingue da de nectários de orquídeas polinizadas por aves. É sugerido que demais espécies ornitófilas desta tribo apresentem glândulas nectaríferas com histologia semelhante. Além disso, a ocorrência de calos nectaríferos é pouco conhecida em Orchidaceae, não havendo registros para espécies ornitófilas / Abstract: This study presents the pollination biology and the breeding system of two Elleanthus (Orchidaceae) species from the Atlantic Forest in southeastern Brazil. The flowering phenology of the species is annual; its flowers open sequentially and last two to four days. Elleanthus brasiliensis flowers present pinkish sepals, while the petals and the lip, which has two lilac spots, are white; in E. crinipes flowers, besides the rose-colored sepals, the petals and the lip are creamy and the operculate anther is lilac. The nectar of these species is produced in the lip calli in volumes ranging from 1 to 6 ?L and sugar concentration is approx. 20%. Nectar analysis detected the presence of sucrose, glucose and fructose, with sucrose prevailing. The species are protandrous which is characterized by the different positions of the reproductive elements during anthesis time. Both are self-compatible, but depend on pollinators for reproduction. The main pollinators are the hummingbirds Ramphodon naevius and Thalurania glaucopis. Several floral traits of these species are characteristic for plants pollinated by hummingbirds. In E. brasiliensis, histological studies revealed the secretory nature of the calli, which is composed of a secretory papillous epidermis with a thin cuticle and a secretory parenchyma. Histochemical studies showed the presence of prenectar in the epidermis and parenchyma cells. It is worth mentioning that the histology of these nectaries is not known for the tribe Sobralieae and it is different from nectaries of other bird pollinated orchids. It is suggested that nectar glands of other ornithophilous species of this tribe present similar histology. Furthermore, the occurrence of nectariferous calli is little known in Orchidaceae, with no records for ornithophilous species / Mestrado / Biologia Vegetal / Mestre em Biologia Vegetal

A growing body of work reveals that animal-mediated pollination is negatively affected by anthropogenic disturbance. Landscape-scale disturbance results in two often inter-related processes: (1) habitat loss, and (2) disruptions of habitat configuration (i.e. fragmentation). Understanding the relative effects of such processes is critical in designing effective management strategies to limit pollination and pollinator decline. I reviewed existing published work from 1989 to 2009 and found that only six of 303 studies separated the effects of habitat loss from fragmentation. I provide a synthesis of the current landscape, behavioral, and pollination ecology literature in order to present preliminary multiple working hypotheses to explain how these two landscape processes might independently influence pollination dynamics (Chapter 2). Despite the potential importance of independent effects of habitat fragmentation, effects on pollination remain largely untested. Studies designed to disentangle the independent effects of habitat loss and fragmentation are essential for gaining insight into landscape-mediated pollination declines. I also found that the field of landscape pollination ecology could benefit from quantification of the matrix, landscape functional connectivity, and pollinator movement behavior. To test the hypothesis that pollinator movement can be influenced by landscape configuration, I translocated radio-tagged hummingbirds across agricultural and forested landscapes near Las Cruces, Costa Rica (Chapter 3). I found return paths were on average more direct in forested than in agricultural landscapes. In addition, movement paths chosen in agricultural landscapes were more forested than the most direct route suggesting that hummingbirds avoided crossing open areas when possible. To determine if differences in pollinator movement translated to differences in plant reproduction, I tested the relative importance of landscape composition versus configuration on the reproductive success of Heliconia tortuosa, a hummingbird-pollinated forest herb (Chapter 4). I used a stratified random sampling design to select sites across orthogonal gradients in patch size, amount of forest, and elevation. I tested four landscape change hypotheses (i.e., local, landscape composition, landscape fragmentation, and fragmentation threshold). I found that Heliconia reproduction supported both the local site and landscape fragmentation hypotheses. Seed set increased with increasing forest patch size independent of amount of forest in the surrounding landscape. I also found that increasing patch size positively influenced the relative abundance of pollinators. The observed differences in seed set likely resulted from differences in hummingbird movements (Chapter 3) and/or abundance under different landscape configurations. / Graduation date: 2013