PLANT AND ANIMAL SCIENCES
BY PETER D. MOORE
Department of Biology
King's College
London, U.K.
The cycads are an unusual group of gymnosperms in that they are pollinated by insects rather than by wind. In a study of the Mexican cycad, Zamia furfuracea, pollination was found to be dependent on a single insect species, the host-specific snout weevil, which completes its entire life cycle within the cones of this plant. Hatching, feeding, mating, and oviposition all take place within the male cone, but, fortunatley for the cycad, the weevils occasionally visit the female. cones and thus effect pollination.
K.J. Norstog, P.K.S. Fawcett, "Insect-cycad symbiosis and its relation to the pollination of Zamia furfuracea (Zamiaceae) byRhopalotria mollis (Curculionidae),"American Journal of Botany, 76, 1380-94, September 1989. (Fairchild Tropical Garden, Miami)
" There is much theoretical argument over the optimal design for a nature reserve. The number of tree species found...
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