Often Forgotten, no Less Important: Coleoptera and Diptera as Pollinators in Tropical Mountain Ecosystems

ABSTRACT Although bees have been extensively studied, other less charismatic insect groups, such as Diptera and Coleoptera, are often overlooked. However, these are widespread and integrate pollination networks, being dominant in specific habitats such as high‐altitude regions. However, important knowledge gaps consist of: (1) most network studies are conducted in temperate mountains with limited data for tropical ones, (2) neglected pollinators are not the focus of investigations, and (3) most studies have a short temporal scale, without investigating seasonality effects throughout the year. To fill these gaps, we studied several sites in the Espinhaço Mountain Range (EMR), a local area with exceptional biodiversity and endemism. We compared the networks between the southern and northern areas across four seasons: early and late dry, and early and late wet seasons. We found two times more interactions between plants and pollinators in the southern than in the northern EMR. Plants engaged in Coleoptera and Diptera‐mediated pollination are, in general, white, mass‐flowering, and belong to Asteraceae, Cyperaceae, and Eriocaulaceae families. The number of interactions decreased from early wet to end dry, both in southern and northern EMR. Specialisation slightly increases over the seasons in the southern EMR but decreases in the northern. In general, nestedness was higher in the dry season. Networks are, in general, modular. Modularity was higher in the early wet season, progressively decreasing over the seasons in both areas. In conclusion, given the ecological dominance of Eriocaulaceae, Asteraceae, and other plant families in the EMR, the decline of Diptera and Coleoptera could imply cascading effects across the ecosystem. Also, as the networks change over the climatic seasons in this tropical mountain, this highlights the importance of understanding the complex effect of climate change on the EMR plant‐pollinator interactions.