First record of geckos visiting flowers in the Palaearctic Ecozone

摘要

Pollination networks on islands are often characterized by less complexity than comparable continental environments ( ). Furthermore, they sometimes include novel generalist-feeding nonspecialist pollinators, including birds in particular (e.g., and references therein). This ecological process has been commonly interpreted in a context of depauperation of insular faunas and interaction release ( ). The intervention of lizards as opportunistic flower visitors has also been reported (see and references therein). It is known that diurnal lizards (e.g., Family Lacertidae and Phyllodactylidae) visit flowers relatively often in tropical, subtropical, and temperate island environments (see references in ). There are however no data about visits by geckos in the Palaearctic Ecozone, where they are widely considered as insectivorous ( ). Interactions of different continental Sauria species visiting flowers are usually considered scarce, being more frequent on islands (see reviews by ). This includes the Macaronesian islands (see review by ). According to these authors, some families are quantitatively important partners in these interactions. Examples are Lacertidae in subtropical and temperate latitudes, and different families of Gekkota, basically in tropical zones. However, as far as we know, no interactions between geckos and flowers have been described in the Palaearctic Ecozone, including the Macaronesian islands (Madeira, Selvagens, Canaries, and Cabo Verde), where this Sauria family is distributed and has evolved. The gecko species in these archipelagos are mostly considered clearly insectivorous ( ; and references therein). However, consistent herbivory for large insular has already been reported in Cabo Verde based on food remains and metagenomics ( ). In the surrounding continental zones, geckos have also shown a clear pattern of insect consumption, both in the South of the Iberian Peninsula (see review of ) and North-western Africa ( ). During a nocturnal survey in April 2016 to search for the presence of the giant endemic grasshopper , in the Southwestern zone (Tamanca) of the island of La Palma (Canary archipelago), one of us (D.H-T.) recorded at least 4 individuals of on shrubs (Euphorbiaceae). This gecko is endemic to this island and also Tenerife. Although at first they were assumed to be hunting nocturnal insect visitors on flowers, we decided to study these first observations in more detail. Up to the present, it appears that no study has discovered any interaction of geckos visiting flowers in the Palaearctic Ecozone. The different species have hitherto been considered as clearly insectivores.