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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1983 Mar;80(5):1298–1299. doi: 10.1073/pnas.80.5.1298

Hawkmoth pollination of Mirabilis longiflora (Nyctaginaceae)

Verne Grant 1, Karen A Grant 1
PMCID: PMC393583  PMID: 16593287

Abstract

A guild composed of very-long-tubed hawkmoth flowers (nectar tubes, 9 cm or more long), belonging to different genera and families, occurs in the American Southwest. Our knowledge of the hawkmoth associates of these flowers is fragmentary. Mirabilis longiflora, a member of the guild with a tube 10.0-10.5 cm long, was found to be visited and pollinated mainly by Manduca quinquemaculata with a proboscis 10.7-11.6 cm long in the Chiricahua Mountains of southeastern Arizona. This example fits in with four other previously reported cases. The long-tongued Man. quinquemaculata is now known to be associated with five species of very long-tongued hawkmoth flowers in the Southwest, and Man. rustica has been found on one of them.

Keywords: hawkmoth flowers

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