ABSTRACT:

This update on aroid pollinators or inflorescence-visitors adds information on 32 genera (and 60 species). Of these, 10 aroid genera and about 36 species are newly documented or revisited under new generic names. In summary, currently available data on the subject now sums up to approximately 200 aroid species across 67 genera. An ever increasing number of studies now aim at establishing the identity of effective pollinating insects among all the visitors, but also at understanding how other florivorous or phytophagous insects can affect the plant reproductive success. In recent years, many studies have integrated molecular and/or chemical data to the study of aroid pollination. Such multidisciplinary approaches further increase our knowledge of the functional and evolutionary processes involved. Aroid-insect interactions are far more complex than just plant-pollinator relationships, they include in many cases non-mutualistic partners taking advantage of the interaction to carry on with their biological cycles. Hence interactions between these plants and their inflorescence visitors are subjected to multiple selective pressures, which ultimately drive the evolution of the component parts and the whole.