Management reduces floral damage by bees and beetles in Cereus jamacaru DC. (Cactaceae) in the Caatinga dry forest

Florivory is the consumption of floral structures, affecting both developing flower buds and flowers, even those that have already been fertilized. Florivory can have direct or indirect impacts on plant reproduction, and also on the persistence of species in the ecosystem. It is common for managed plant populations to have large flowers, which could be more consumed by florivores. Thus, our objective was to investigate florivory in managed and unmanaged individuals of C. jamacaru DC. (Cactaceae), distributed in a dry forest area of the Caatinga. We conducted field observations, where we collected floral buds and flowers and identified the floral structures consumed and the florivores. We analyzed the florivory according to the following parameters: intensity (i.e., number of flowers attacked), damage pattern (i.e., continuous vs. discontinuous), and total area consumed by florivory in each population. We identified florivory by Trigona spinipes bees and Cyclocephala paraguayensis beetles in both populations. We observed that: (1) florivory was 35% higher in flowers of the unmanaged population; (2) the continuous pattern was the most common type of damage; (3) the amount of floral tissue removed by florivores in each population was not proportional to flower size. Traditional management of C. jamacaru appears to reduce florivory by T. spinipes and C. paraguayensis, helping to maintain populations in managed areas (i.e., anthropized areas). High florivory in natural populations may have negative consequences for the reproduction of this species (i.e., pollination and reproductive success) and for the long-term maintenance of florivores, which are also pollinators of several plants of economic interest.