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Understanding the ecological and evolutionary aspects of mutualistic interactions is essential for predicting species responses to environmental changes. This study aimed to investigate the phenological patterns and reproductive strategies in two closely related fig tree species, Ficus citrifolia and Ficus eximia . We monitored 99 F. citrifolia and 21 F. eximia trees weekly from January 2006 to April 2011 in an area close to the southern edge of the tropical region in Brazil. Our results revealed contrasting phenological patterns between the two species, with F. citrifolia displaying an annual flowering pattern (1.4 episodes per tree per year) and F. eximia a supra-annual pattern (0.5 episodes per tree per year). We also found significant differences in reproductive strategies, with F. eximia producing more pistillate flowers and, consequently, more seeds and pollinating wasps per fig than F. citrifolia , likely as an adaptation to overcome limitations of low population density by maximizing the gene flow. As the shorter-lived organism, the fig wasp was found to influence critical processes associated with the success and stability of mutualism, such as fig development and ripening. Our findings emphasize the importance of understanding the intricate interactions between mutualistic partners and their adaptive responses to environmental conditions in shaping fig tree populations' reproductive strategies and genetic structure.

Encounters between flowers and invertebrates are key events for the functioning of tropical forests. Assessing the structure of networks composed of the interactions between those partners leads to a better understanding of ecosystem functioning and the effects of environmental factors on ecological processes. Gathering such data is, however, costly and time-consuming, especially in the highly diverse tropics. We aimed to provide a comprehensive repository of available flower-invertebrate interaction information for the Atlantic Forest, a South American tropical forest domain. Data were obtained from published works and "gray literature," such as theses and dissertations, as well as self-reports by co-authors. The data set has ~18,000 interaction records forming 482 networks, each containing between one and 1061 interaction links. Each network was sampled for about 200 h or less, with few exceptions. A total of 641 plant genera within 136 different families and 39 orders were reported, with the most abundant and rich families being Asteraceae, Fabaceae, and Rubiaceae. Invertebrates interacting with these plants were all arthropods from 10 orders, 129 families, and 581 genera, comprising 2419 morphotypes (including 988 named species). Hymenoptera was the most abundant and diverse order, with at least six times more records than the second-ranked order (Lepidoptera). The complete data set shows Hymenoptera interacting with all plant orders and also shows Diptera, Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, and Hemiptera to be important nodes. Among plants, Asterales and Fabales had the highest number of interactions. The best sampled environment was forest (~8000 records), followed by pastures and crops. Savanna, grasslands, and urban environments (among others) were also reported, indicating a wide range of approaches dedicated to collecting flower-invertebrate interaction data in the Atlantic Forest domain. Nevertheless, most reported data were from forest understory or lower strata, indicating a knowledge gap about flower-invertebrate interactions at the canopy. Also, access to remote regions remains a limitation, generating sampling bias across the geographical range of the Atlantic Forest. Future studies in these continuous and hard-to-access forested areas will yield important new information regarding the interactions between flowers and invertebrates in the Atlantic Forest. There are no copyright restrictions on the data set. Please cite this data paper if the data are used in publications and teaching events., (© 2022 The Ecological Society of America.)

Despite many attempts in the Sanger sequencing era, the phylogeny of fig trees remains unresolved, which limits our ability to analyze the evolution of key traits that may have contributed to their evolutionary and ecological success. We used restriction-site-associated DNA sequencing (c. 420 kb) and 102 morphological characters to elucidate the relationships between 70 species of Ficus. To increase phylogenetic information for higher-level relationships, we targeted conserved regions and assembled paired reads into long loci to enable the retrieval of homologous loci in outgroup genomes. We compared morphological and molecular results to highlight discrepancies and reveal possible inference bias. For the first time, we recovered a monophyletic subgenus Urostigma (stranglers) and a clade with all gynodioecious Ficus. However, we show, with a new approach based on iterative principal component analysis, that it is not (and will probably never be) possible to homogenize evolutionary rates and GC content for all taxa before phylogenetic inference. Four competing positions for the root of the molecular tree are possible. The placement of section Pharmacosycea as sister to other fig trees is not supported by morphological data and considered a result of a long-branch attraction artefact to the outgroups. Regarding morphological features and indirect evidence from the pollinator tree of life, the topology that divides Ficus into monoecious versus gynodioecious species appears most plausible. It seems most likely that the ancestor of fig trees was a freestanding tree and active pollination is inferred as the ancestral state, contrary to previous hypotheses. However, ambiguity remains on the ancestral breeding system. Despite morphological plasticity, we advocate restoring a central role to morphology in our understanding of the evolution of Ficus, as it can help detect systematic errors that appear more pronounced with larger molecular datasets., (© 2020 Willi Hennig Society.)

Background and Aims: Moraceae, the family of mulberry and fig trees, displays small homogeneous flowers but extremely diverse inflorescences ranging from simple and branched to complex and condensed. Inflorescences also vary in flower organization in the receptacle, in the degree of flower condensation and in receptacle shape. Thus, the objective of the present study was to compare the inflorescence morphogenesis of Moraceae species, to investigate whether clades with a similar pollination mode share the same patterns of inflorescence development and the developmental stages at which we observe the key changes resulting in the diversified inflorescence architecture that culminates in the Ficus syconium., Methods: Inflorescences at different developmental stages were sampled from Brosimum gaudichaudii, Castilla elastica, Clarisia ilicifolia, Ficus pertusa, Maclura tinctoria and Morus nigra and processed for surface and anatomical analyses., Key Results: The inflorescence morphogenesis of the studied species is highly variable. The shape of the inflorescence meristem (bulging, hemispheric or elongated), the initiation order and arrangement of flowers along the receptacle and the occurrence of bracts vary between related species. This diversity originates early during inflorescence development. Brosimum gaudichaudii, C. elastica and F. pertusa have flowers enclosed or immersed within the receptacle, although inflorescences begin their development as flat and open structures, as occurs in the other three study species., Conclusion: Comparison of the inflorescence morphogenesis in Moraceae species allows us to infer that evolutionary ontogenetic changes driven by pollinators culminate in the enclosure of flowers inside the receptacle, as occurs in the Ficus syconium., (© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Ficus (figs) and their agaonid wasp pollinators present an ecologically important mutualism that also provides a rich comparative system for studying functional co-diversification throughout its coevolutionary history (~75 million years). We obtained entire nuclear, mitochondrial, and chloroplast genomes for 15 species representing all major clades of Ficus. Multiple analyses of these genomic data suggest that hybridization events have occurred throughout Ficus evolutionary history. Furthermore, cophylogenetic reconciliation analyses detect significant incongruence among all nuclear, chloroplast, and mitochondrial-based phylogenies, none of which correspond with any published phylogenies of the associated pollinator wasps. These findings are most consistent with frequent host-switching by the pollinators, leading to fig hybridization, even between distantly related clades. Here, we suggest that these pollinator host-switches and fig hybridization events are a dominant feature of fig/wasp coevolutionary history, and by generating novel genomic combinations in the figs have likely contributed to the remarkable diversity exhibited by this mutualism.

The botanical source of Brazilian green propolis (BGP) is Baccharis dracunculifolia DC, which interacts not only with Apis mellifera, but also with galling insects. In the last decade, because of green propolis´ important biologic activities, the international demand for BGP overcame the production capacity, consequently, new approaches are required to increase this production. Hence, the understanding of the chemical ecology interactions of B. dracunculifolia with galls and bees in field conditions may provide insights to increase BGP's production. A "bee pasture" experiment aiming to better understand this plant-insect interaction was therefore performed. For that, 48 B. dracunculifolia individuals, being 24 females and 24 males, were cultivated and investigated for the following parameters: (1) phenolic and volatile compounds in both B. dracunculifolia leaves and green propolis, (2) environmental variables, (3) visiting rate by bees, (4) time of resin collection, and (5) number of galls. Regression analyses by independent linear mixed-effect models were run to correlate phenolic and volatile compounds concentration with the environmental and field variables. Significant differences in chemical profile and field variables were observed between male and female plants. Male plants showed higher infestation by galling insects while female plants showed higher number of visiting bees, time of resin collection and terpenes concentration, contributing to the differences observed in the field. The obtained results suggest that increasing the percentage of female B. dracunculifolia plants in the field may attract more bees and therefore enhance propolis production.

Epiphytes are hyper-diverse and one of the frequently undervalued life forms in plant surveys and biodiversity inventories. Epiphytes of the Atlantic Forest, one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world, have high endemism and radiated recently in the Pliocene. We aimed to (1) compile an extensive Atlantic Forest data set on vascular, non-vascular plants (including hemiepiphytes), and lichen epiphyte species occurrence and abundance; (2) describe the epiphyte distribution in the Atlantic Forest, in order to indicate future sampling efforts. Our work presents the first epiphyte data set with information on abundance and occurrence of epiphyte phorophyte species. All data compiled here come from three main sources provided by the authors: published sources (comprising peer-reviewed articles, books, and theses), unpublished data, and herbarium data. We compiled a data set composed of 2,095 species, from 89,270 holo/hemiepiphyte records, in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay, recorded from 1824 to early 2018. Most of the records were from qualitative data (occurrence only, 88%), well distributed throughout the Atlantic Forest. For quantitative records, the most common sampling method was individual trees (71%), followed by plot sampling (19%), and transect sampling (10%). Angiosperms (81%) were the most frequently registered group, and Bromeliaceae and Orchidaceae were the families with the greatest number of records (27,272 and 21,945, respectively). Ferns and Lycophytes presented fewer records than Angiosperms, and Polypodiaceae were the most recorded family, and more concentrated in the Southern and Southeastern regions. Data on non-vascular plants and lichens were scarce, with a few disjunct records concentrated in the Northeastern region of the Atlantic Forest. For all non-vascular plant records, Lejeuneaceae, a family of liverworts, was the most recorded family. We hope that our effort to organize scattered epiphyte data help advance the knowledge of epiphyte ecology, as well as our understanding of macroecological and biogeographical patterns in the Atlantic Forest. No copyright restrictions are associated with the data set. Please cite this Ecology Data Paper if the data are used in publication and teaching events., (© 2019 The Authors. Ecology © 2019 The Ecological Society of America.)

The galling habit represents a complex type of interaction between insects and plants, ranging from antagonism to mutualism. The obligate pollination mutualism between Ficus and fig wasps relies strongly on the induction of galls in Ficus flowers, where wasps' offspring develop. Even though gall induction plays an important role in many insect-plant interactions, the mechanisms that trigger gall formation are still not completely known. Using a fingerprinting approach, we show here that venom protein profiles from galling fig wasps differ from the venom profiles of non-galling species, suggesting the secretion plays different roles according to the type of interaction it is involved in. Each studied cleptoparasitic species had a distinct venom profile, suggesting that cleptoparasitism in fig wasps covers a vast diversity of molecular interactions. Fig wasp venoms are mainly composed of peptides. No low molecular weight compounds were detected by UPLC-DAD-MS, suggesting that such compounds (e.g., IAA and cytokinines) are not involved in gall induction. The differences in venom composition observed between galling and non-galling fig wasp species bring new perspectives to the study of gall induction processes and the role of insect secretions., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Ficus (Moraceae) is well diversified in the Neotropics with two lineages inhabiting the wet forests of this region. The hemiepiphytes of section Americanae are the most diversified with c. 120 species, whereas section Pharmacosycea includes about 20 species mostly with a terrestrial habit. To reconstruct the biogeographical history and diversification of Ficus in the Americas, we produced a dated Bayesian phylogenetic hypothesis of Neotropical Ficus including two thirds of the species sequenced for five nuclear regions (At103, ETS, G3pdh, ITS/5.8S and Tpi). Ancestral range was estimated using all models available in Biogeobears and Binary State Speciation and Extinction analysis was used to evaluate the role of the initial habit and propagule size in diversification. The phylogenetic analyses resolved both Neotropical sections as monophyletic but the internal relationships between species in section Americanae remain unclear. Ficus started their diversification in the Neotropics between the Oligocene and Miocene. The genus experienced two bursts of diversification: in the middle Miocene and the Pliocene. Colonization events from the Amazon to adjacent areas coincide with the end of the Pebas system (10 Mya) and the connection of landmasses. Divergence of endemic species in the Atlantic forest is inferred to have happened after its isolation and the opening and consolidation of the Cerrado. Our results suggest a complex diversification in the Atlantic forest differing between postulated refuges and more instable areas in the South distribution of the forest. Finally the selection for initial hemiepiphytic habit and small to medium propagule size influenced the diversification and current distribution of the species at Neotropical forests marked by the historical instability and long-distance dispersal., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)