Reproductive phenology and insects pollinators of Thelocactus bicolor (Galeotti ex Pfeiff.) Britton & Rose in three localities of Nuevo León and San Luis Potosí, Mexico

Abstract

The reproductive phenology of Thelocactus bicolor (Galeotti ex Pfeiff.) Britton & Rose, in addition to monitoring the insects that interacted with the flowers of this plant, located in the Botanical Garden Efraím Hernández Xolocotzi located in Linares, Nuevo León, and in two nurseries for rescued plants located in Guadalcázar, San Luis Potosí, was registered. The study was carried out in 2020, selecting and marking ten individuals located in 1 m², to evaluate the presence of their phenological stages (immature flower, intermediate flower, mature flower, immature fruit, ripe fruit, fruit in dispersion) through fortnightly sampling for a year, registering the activity and time in which arthropods interacted with the flowers of this cactus. The cacti began flowering in the months of January and February at the three study sites. The mature flower stage only appeared in the Guadalcázar localities therefore, no insects were captured at the site located in Nuevo León. The Jacard similarity index showed a 50% of similarity between the registered arthropods of the Guadalcázar sites.