A guild composed of very-long-tubed hawkmoth flowers (nectar tubes, 9 cm or more long), belonging to different genera and families, occurs in the American Southwest. Our knowledge of the hawkmoth associates of these flowers is fragmentary. Mirabilis longiflora, a member of the guild with a tube 10.0-10.5 cm long, was found to be visited and pollinated mainly by Manduca quinquemaculata with a proboscis 10.7-11.6 cm long in the Chiricahua Mountains of southeastern Arizona. This example fits in with four other previously reported cases. The long-tongued Man. quinquemaculata is now known to be associated with five species of very long-tongued hawkmoth flowers in the Southwest, and Man. rustica has been found on one of them.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Grant et al. (1983) studied this question.