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69-455: The orange-breasted sunbird ( Anthobaphes violacea ) is a species of small, predominantly nectar-feeding bird that is endemic to the fynbos shrubland biome of southwestern South Africa . It is the only member of the genus Anthobaphes , in the family Nectariniidae (the sunbirds and spiderhunters ), though it is sometimes placed in the genus Nectarinia . The birds are sexually dimorphic , with females being olive green while

138-556: A cave environment limits an organism's ability to disperse, since caves are often not connected to each other. One hypothesis for how closely related troglobite species could become isolated from one another in different caves is that their common ancestor may have been less restricted to cave habitats. When climate conditions became unfavorable, the ancestral species was extirpated from the surface, but some populations survived in caves, and diverged into different species due to lack of gene flow between them. Isolated islands commonly develop

207-465: A constant amount in a country, as opposed to epidemic diseases, which are exploding in cases. The word was used in biology in 1872 to mean a species restricted to a specific location by Charles Darwin . The less common term 'precinctive' has been used by some entomologists as the equivalent of 'endemic'. Precinctive was coined in 1900 by David Sharp when describing the Hawaiian insects, as he

276-503: A decrease in visit frequency as pollinators practice avoidance of robbed flowers and favor intact flowers. Nectar robbers that diminish the volume of nectar in flowers may also leave behind their odor which causes a decrease in visitation frequency by legitimate pollinators. Nectar robbing can also cause plants to reallocate resources from reproduction and growth to replenishing the stolen nectar, which can be costly to produce for some plants. Nectar robbing, especially by birds, can damage

345-646: A defence against nectar robbing because they are often found in floral nectar or petal tissue. There is some evidence that secondary compounds in nectar only affect nectar robbers and not the pollinators. One example is a plant called Catalpa speciosa which produces nectar containing iridoid glycosides that deter nectar-thieving ants but not legitimate bee pollinators. Low sugar concentration in nectar may also deter nectar robbers without deterring pollinators because dilute nectar does not yield net energy profits for robbers. If robbers and pollinators forage at different times of day, plants may produce nectar according to

414-478: A euendemic the vicariance was geologic in nature, such as the movement of tectonic plates, but in a cryptoendemic the disjunct distribution was due to the extinction of the intervening populations. There is yet another possible situation that can cause a disjunct distribution, where a species is able to colonize new territories by crossing over areas of unsuitable habitat, such as plants colonizing an island – this situation they dismiss as extremely rare and do not devise

483-675: A flower's nectar, legitimate pollinators may avoid the flower, resulting in a negative effect on plant fitness. The response of different species of legitimate pollinators also varies. Some species, like the bumble bees Bombus appositus or B. occidentalis and many species of nectar-feeding birds can distinguish between robbed and unrobbed plants and minimize their energy cost of foraging by avoiding heavily robbed flowers. Pollinating birds may be better at this than insects, because of their higher sensory capability. The ways that bees distinguish between robbed and unrobbed flowers have not been studied, but they have been thought to be related to

552-729: A higher payoff than nectar robbing. Some studies have shown that nectar robbing does not have a significant negative effect on the reproductive success of both male and female plants. Even though there has not been much research on the defences evolved in plants against nectar robbers, the adaptations have been assumed not to rise from traits used in interactions between plants and herbivores (especially florivores). Some defences may have evolved through traits originally referred to pollination. Defences against nectar robbers have been thought to include toxins and secondary compounds , escape in time or space, physical barriers and indirect defences. Toxins and secondary compounds are likely to act as

621-402: A holoendemic is a cosmopolitan species. Stenoendemics, also known as local endemics, have a reduced distribution and are synonymous with the word 'endemics' in the traditional sense, whereas euryendemics have a larger distribution -both these have distributions that are more or less continuous. A rhoendemic has a disjunct distribution . Where this disjunct distribution is caused by vicariance, in

690-437: A limited range. Paleoendemism is more or less synonymous with the concept of a ' relict species ': a population or taxon of organisms that were more widespread or more diverse in the past. A 'relictual population' is a population that currently occurs in a restricted area, but whose original range was far wider during a previous geologic epoch . Similarly, a 'relictual taxon' is a taxon (e.g. species or other lineage) that

759-513: A much larger area, but died out in most of their range, are called paleoendemic , in contrast to neoendemic species, which are new species that have not dispersed beyond their range. The ginkgo tree, Ginkgo biloba , is one example of a paleoendemic species. In many cases biological factors, such as low rates of dispersal or returning to the spawning area ( philopatry ), can cause a particular group of organisms to have high speciation rates and thus many endemic species. For example, cichlids in

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828-522: A name for. Traditionally, none of Myers and de Grave's categories would be considered endemics except stenoendemics. Some environments are particularly conducive to the development of endemic species, either because they allow the persistence of relict taxa that were extirpated elsewhere, or because they provide mechanisms for isolation and opportunities to fill new niches. Serpentine soils act as ' edaphic islands' of low fertility and these soils lead to high rates of endemism. These soils are found in

897-465: A number of endemics. Many species and other higher taxonomic groups exist in very small terrestrial or aquatic islands, which restrict their distribution. The Devil's Hole pupfish, Cyprinodon diabolis , has its whole native population restricted to a spring that is 20 x 3 meters, in Nevada 's Mojave Desert . This 'aquatic island' is connected to an underground basin; however, the population present in

966-427: A particular place and evaluating the risk of extinction for species. Endemism is also of interest in evolutionary biology , because it provides clues about how changes in the environment cause species to undergo range shifts (potentially expanding their range into a larger area, or becoming extirpated from an area they once lived), go extinct, or diversify into more species. The extreme opposite of an endemic species

1035-468: A rather limited distribution range. A number of plasmodia-like blood parasites are known from the orange-breasted sunbirds. This species is currently classified as Least Concern by the IUCN . It may however be adversely affected by urbanisation, habitat conversion to agriculture, and fynbos fires. Endemism Endemism is an important concept in conservation biology for measuring biodiversity in

1104-567: A side top entrance, but does not have a covered porch. The usual clutch is two eggs and the female alone incubates. The eggs hatch in about 14.5 days and both parents feed the young. The young birds are mostly fed with insect and spider prey. The orange-breasted sunbird subsists on flower nectar, predominantly from ericas and proteas, although it will make use of other types of flowering plants as well. It will also take small insects and spiders, often in flight. Orange-breasted sunbirds are known to pollinate Protea, Leucospermum, and Erica species ,

1173-498: A species can lead to endemism in multiple ways. Allopatric speciation , or geographic speciation, is when two populations of a species become geographically separated from each other and as a result develop into different species. In isolated areas where there is little possibility for organisms to disperse to new places, or to receive new gene flow from outside, the rate of endemism is particularly high. For example, many endemic species are found on remote islands , such as Hawaii ,

1242-504: A very restrictive range, due to the unique environmental characteristics. The Kula Volcano , one of the fourteen volcanoes in Turkey , is home to 13 endemic species of plants. Endemics might more easily become endangered or extinct because they are already restricted in distribution. This puts endemic plants and animals at greater risk than widespread species during the rapid climate change of this century. Some scientists claim that

1311-625: A wide variety of evolutionary histories, so researchers often use more specialized terms that categorize endemic species based upon how they came to be endemic to an area. Different categorizations of endemism also capture the uniqueness and irreplaceability of biodiversity hotspots differently and impact how those hotspots are defined, affecting how resources for conservation are allocated. The first subcategories were first introduced by Claude P. E. Favager and Juliette Contandriopoulis in 1961: schizoendemics, apoendemics and patroendemics. Using this work, Ledyard Stebbins and Jack Major then introduced

1380-437: A wider distributed taxon that has become reproductively isolated without becoming (potentially) genetically isolated – a schizoendemic has the same chromosome count as the parent taxon it evolved from. An apoendemic is a polyploid of the parent taxon (or taxa in the case of allopolyploids ), whereas a patroendemic has a lower, diploid chromosome count than the related, more widely distributed polyploid taxon. Mikio Ono coined

1449-450: Is a foraging behavior used by some organisms that feed on floral nectar , carried out by feeding from holes bitten in flowers, rather than by entering through the flowers' natural openings. Nectar robbers usually feed in this way, avoiding contact with the floral reproductive structures, and therefore do not facilitate plant reproduction via pollination . Because many species that act as pollinators also act as nectar robbers, nectar robbing

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1518-533: Is a common breeder across its limited range, and is an altitudinal migrant , moving to higher altitudes during the southern summer in search of flowers. It is gregarious when not breeding, forming flocks of up to 100 birds. The orange-breasted sunbird breeds from February to November (mainly in May–August). The nest , built mainly by the female, is an oval of rootlets, fine leafy twigs and grass, bound together with spider webs and lined with brown protea fluff. It has

1587-416: Is concealed or hard to reach. For instance, long flowers with tubular corollas are prone to robbing. Secondary robbers often do not have suitable mouth parts to be able to create penetrations into the flowers themselves, nor to reach the nectar without robbing it. Thus they take advantage of the perforations already made by other organisms to be able to steal the nectar. For example, short-tongued bees such as

1656-525: Is considered to be a form of exploitation of plant-pollinator mutualism . While there is variation in the dependency on nectar for robber species, most species rob facultatively (that is, to supplement their diets, rather than as an absolute necessity). Nectar robbers vary greatly in species diversity and include species of carpenter bees , bumblebees , stingless Trigona bees, solitary bees, wasps , ants , hummingbirds , and some passerine birds , including flowerpiercers . Nectar-robbing mammals include

1725-525: Is detrimental to the plant, a plant species might evolve to minimize the traits that attract the robbers or develop some type of protective mechanism to hinder them. Another option is to try to neutralize negative effects of nectar robbers. Nectar robbers are adapted for more efficient nectar robbing: for instance, hummingbirds and Diglossa flowerpiercers have serrated bills that are thought to aid them in incising flower tissue for nectar robbing. Nectar robbers may only get food in illegitimate ways because of

1794-575: Is now the only member of the genus Anthobaphes that was introduced by the German ornithologists Jean Cabanis in 1850. The name is from the Ancient Greek anthobaphēs "bright-coloured" derived from ανθος anthos for flower and βαφη baphē for dyeing. As with other sunbirds the bill is long and decurved, that of the male being longer than that of the female. The bill, legs and feet are black. The eyes are dark brown. The head, throat and mantle of

1863-418: Is one with a cosmopolitan distribution , having a global or widespread range. A rare alternative term for a species that is endemic is "precinctive", which applies to species (and other taxonomic levels) that are restricted to a defined geographical area. Other terms that sometimes are used interchangeably, but less often, include autochthonal, autochthonic, and indigenous; however, these terms do not reflect

1932-434: Is only possible where 1.) the taxonomy of the species in question is not in dispute; 2.) the species distribution is accurately known; and 3.) the species have relatively small distributional ranges. In a 2000 article, Myers et al . used the standard of having more than 0.5% of the world's plant species being endemic to the region to designate 25 geographical areas of the world as biodiversity hotspots . In response to

2001-405: Is positive if the robber also pollinates or increases the pollination by the legitimate pollinator, and negative if the robber damages the reproductive parts of a plant or reduces pollination success, either by competing with the legitimate pollinator or by lessening the attractiveness of the flower. Positive reproductive results may occur from nectar robbing if the robbers act as pollinators during

2070-430: Is specifically the behavior of consuming nectar from a perforation (robbing hole) in the floral tissue rather than from the floral opening. There are two main types of nectar robbing: primary robbing, which requires that the nectar forager perforate the floral tissues itself, and secondary robbing, which is foraging from a robbing hole created by a primary robber. The former is performed most often on flowers whose nectar

2139-618: Is the sole surviving representative of a formerly diverse group. The concept of phylogenetic endemism has also been used to measure the relative uniqueness of the species endemic to an area. In measurements that incorporate phylogenetic endemism, branches of the evolutionary tree are weighted by how narrowly they are distributed. This captures not only the total number of taxa endemic to the area (taxonomic endemism), but also how distant those species are from their living relatives. Schizoendemics, apoendemics and patroendemics can all be classified as types of neoendemics. Schizoendemics arise from

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2208-468: Is used to hold the flower while the lower mandible creates the hole and extracts the nectar. While this is the most common method employed by bird species, some steal nectar in a more aggressive manner. For example, bullfinches reach the nectar by completely tearing the corolla off from the calyx. Mammal robbers such as the striped squirrel chew holes at the base of the flower and then consume the nectar. The term "floral larceny" has been proposed to include

2277-1076: The Galápagos Islands and Socotra . Populations on an island are isolated, with little opportunity to interbreed with outside populations, which eventually causes reproductive isolation and separation into different species. Darwin's finches in the Galápagos archipelago are examples of species endemic to islands. Similarly, isolated mountainous regions like the Ethiopian Highlands , or large bodies of water far from other lakes, like Lake Baikal , can also have high rates of endemism. Endemism can also be created in areas which act as refuges for species during times of climate change like ice ages . These changes may have caused species to become repeatedly restricted to regions with unusually stable climate conditions, leading to high concentrations of endemic species in areas resistant to climate fluctuations. Endemic species that used to exist in

2346-586: The binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature . When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition , he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the orange-breasted sunbird. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Certhia violacea and cited Brisson's work. This species

2415-504: The cougar is endemic to the Americas, and all known life is endemic to Earth. However, endemism is normally used only when a species has a relatively small or restricted range. This usage of "endemic" contrasts with "cosmopolitan." Endemics are not necessarily rare; some might be common where they occur. Likewise, not all rare species are endemics; some may have a large range but be rare throughout this range. The evolutionary history of

2484-407: The early bumblebee ( Bombus pratorum ) are unable to reach the nectar located at the base of long flowers such as comfreys . In order to access the nectar, the bee will enter the flower through a hole bitten at the base, stealing the nectar without aiding in pollination. Birds are mostly primary robbers and typically use their beaks to penetrate the corolla tissue of flower petals. The upper mandible

2553-659: The fruit bat and Swinhoe's striped squirrel , which rob nectar from the ginger plant . Records of nectar robbing in nature date back at least to 1793, when German naturalist Christian Konrad Sprengel observed bumblebees perforating flowers. This was recorded in his book, The Secret of Nature in the Form and Fertilization of Flowers Discovered , which was written in Berlin. Charles Darwin observed bumblebees stealing nectar from flowers in 1859. These observations were published in his book The Origin of Species . Nectar robbing

2622-960: The Balkan Peninsula, Turkey, Alps, Cuba, New Caledonia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, the North American Appalachians, and scattered distribution in California, Oregon, and Washington and elsewhere. For example, Mayer and Soltis considered the widespread subspecies Streptanthus glandulosus subsp. glandulosus which grows on normal soils, to be a paleoendemic, whereas closely related endemic forms of S. glandulosus occurring on serpentine soil patches are neoendemics which recently evolved from subsp. glandulosus . Obligate cave-dwelling species, known as troglobites, are often endemic to small areas, even to single individual caves, because cave habitats are by nature restricted, isolated, and fragmented. A high level of adaptation to

2691-571: The East African Rift Lakes have diversified into many more endemic species than the other fish families in the same lakes, possibly due to such factors. Plants that become endemic on isolated islands are often those which have a high rate of dispersal and are able to reach such islands by being dispersed by birds. While birds are less likely to be endemic to a region based on their ability to disperse via flight, there are over 2,500 species which are considered endemic, meaning that

2760-546: The above, the World Wildlife Fund has split the world into a few hundred geographical ' ecoregions '. These have been designed to include as many species as possible that only occur in a single ecoregion, and these species are thus 'endemics' to these ecoregions. Since plenty of these ecoregions have a high prevalence of endemics existing within them, many National Parks have been formed around or within them to further promote conservation. The Caparaó National Park

2829-409: The active period of a legitimate pollinator. This is an example of a defence by escaping in time. Another way to use time in defence is to flower only for one day as a tropical shrub Pavonia dasypetala does to avoid the robbing Trigona bees. Escaping in space refers to a situation in which plant avoids being robbed by growing in a certain location like next to a plant which is more attractive to

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2898-399: The amount of nectar available. This may force pollinators to visit more flowers in their nectar foraging. The increased number of flowers visited and longer flight distances increase pollen flow and outcrossing , which is beneficial for the plant because it lessens inbreeding depression . This requires a robber's not completely consuming all of a flower's nectar. When a robber consumes all of

2967-512: The belly. The wings and tail are blackish. The juvenile resembles the female. The call is a twangy, weak ssharaynk or sskrang , often repeated several times. Due to its restricted range within the fynbos biome of South Africa's Western Cape , this sunbird is associated with ericas and proteas . It breeds when the heath flowers, typically in May. The male defends its territory aggressively, attacking and chasing intruders. This tame species

3036-469: The body of the robber contacts the reproductive parts of the plant while it robs, or during pollen collection which some bees practice in concert with nectar robbing. The impact of Trigona bees (e.g. Trigona ferricauda ) on a plant is almost always negative, probably because their aggressive territorial behaviour effectively evicts legitimate pollinators. Nectar robbers may change the behaviour of legitimate pollinators in other ways, such as by reducing

3105-630: The concept by using WWF ecoregions and reptiles, finding that most reptile endemics occur in WWF ecoregions with high biodiversity. Other conservation efforts for endemics include keeping captive and semi-captive populations in zoological parks and botanical gardens. These methods are ex situ ("off-site") conservation methods. The use of such methods may not only offer refuge and protection for individuals of declining or vulnerable populations, but it may also allow biologists valuable opportunities to research them as well. Nectar robbing Nectar robbing

3174-583: The concept. In their view, everything is endemic, even cosmopolitan species are endemic to Earth, and earlier definitions restricting endemics to specific locations are wrong. Thus the subdivisions neoendemics and paleoendemics are without merit regarding the study of distributions, because these concepts consider that an endemic has a distribution limited to one place. Instead, they propose four different categories: holoendemics, euryendemics, stenoendemics and rhoendemics. In their scheme cryptoendemics and euendemics are further subdivisions of rhoendemics. In their view,

3243-518: The concepts of neoendemics and paleoendemics in 1965 to describe the endemics of California. Endemic taxa can also be classified into autochthonous, allochthonous, taxonomic relicts and biogeographic relicts. Paleoendemism refers to species that were formerly widespread but are now restricted to a smaller area. Neoendemism refers to species that have recently arisen, such as through divergence and reproductive isolation or through hybridization and polyploidy in plants, and have not dispersed beyond

3312-609: The cool climates of mountain peaks are geographically isolated. For example, in the Alpes-Maritimes department of France, Saxifraga florulenta is an endemic plant that may have evolved in the Late Miocene and could have once been widespread across the Mediterranean Basin . Volcanoes also tend to harbor a number of endemic species. Plants on volcanoes tend to fill a specialized ecological niche , with

3381-471: The damage on petal tissue after robbery or changes in nectar quality. Xylocopa sonorina steals nectar through a slit they make in the base of the petals. If nectar robbing severely reduces the success of legitimate pollinators they may be able to switch to other nectar sources. The functionality of flowers can be curtailed by nectar robbers that severely maim the flower by shortening their life span. Damaged flowers are less attractive and thus can lead to

3450-599: The entire suite of foraging behaviors for floral rewards that can potentially disrupt pollination. They include "nectar theft" (floral visits that remove nectar from the floral opening without pollinating the flower), and "base working" (removing nectar from in between petals, which generally bypasses floral reproductive structures). Individual organisms may exhibit mixed behaviors, combining legitimate pollination and nectar robbing, or primary and secondary robbing. Nectar robbing rates can also greatly vary temporally and spatially. The abundance of nectar robbing can fluctuate based on

3519-433: The flowers of which they visit for nectar. They perch on the ground to visit the low flowers of Hyobanche sanguinea and Lachenalia luteola . They also indulge in nectar theft from flowers with longer corolla tubes such as Chasmanthe floribunda . Being fire-prone, the fynbos habitat ensures a great amount of mobility of the birds, which may have contributed to a greater level of individual genetic variability despite having

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3588-425: The increase in potential pollen vectors. Distinguishing between a legitimate pollinator and a nectar robber can be difficult. Pollination systems cause coevolution , as in the close relationships between figs and fig wasps as well as yuccas and yucca moths . If nectar robbers have an effect (direct or indirect) on a plant or pollinator fitness, they are part of the coevolution process. Where nectar robbing

3657-401: The male are bright metallic green. The rest of the upper parts are olive green. The upper breast is metallic violet and the lower breast is bright orange, fading to paler orange and yellow on the belly. The tail is long and blackish, with elongated central tail feathers , which extend beyond the other feathers. The female has olive-greenish grey upperparts and olive yellowish underparts, paler on

3726-787: The males are orange to yellow on the underside with bright green, blue and purple on the head and neck. In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the orange-breasted sunbird in his Ornithologie , based on a specimen collected from the Cape of Good Hope . He used the French name Le petit grimpereau a longue queue du Cap de Bonne Espérance and the Latin Certhia Longicauda Minor Capitis Bonae Spei . Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to

3795-420: The mismatch between the morphologies of their mouthparts and the floral structure; or they may rob nectar as a more energy-saving way to get nectar from flowers. It is not completely clear how pollination mutualisms persist in the presence of cheating nectar robbers. Nevertheless, as exploitation is not always harmful for the plant, the relationship may be able to endure some cheating. Mutualism may simply confer

3864-402: The plant. In another example, when 80 percent of the flowers in a study site were robbed and the robbers did not pollinate, neither the seed nor fruit set were negatively affected. The effect of floral-nectar robbing on plant fitness depends on several issues. Firstly, nectar robbers, such as carpenter bees, bumble bees and some birds, can pollinate flowers. Pollination may take place when

3933-677: The pool remains isolated. Other areas very similar to the Galapagos Islands of the Pacific Ocean exist and foster high rates of endemism. The Socotra Archipelago of Yemen, located in the Indian Ocean, has seen a new endemic species of parasitic leech, Myxobdella socotrensis, appear. This species is restricted to freshwater springs, where it may attach to and feed upon native crabs. Mountains can be seen as ' sky islands ': refugia of endemics because species that live in

4002-404: The presence of endemic species in an area is a good method to find geographical regions that can be considered priorities for conservation. Endemism can thus be studied as a proxy for measuring biodiversity of a region. The concept of finding endemic species that occur in the same region to designate 'endemism hotspots' was first proposed by Paul Müller in a 1973 book. According to him, this

4071-572: The reproductive parts of a flower and thus diminish the fitness of a plant. In this case, the effect of robbery on a plant is direct. A good example of an indirect effect is the change in the behaviour of a legitimate pollinator, which either increases or decreases the fitness of a plant. There are both primary and secondary nectar robbers. Secondary robbers are those that take advantage of the holes made by primary robbers. While most flies and bees are secondary robbers, some species, such as Bombylius major , act as primary robbers. The effect of robbing

4140-477: The rewards without direct contact with the reproductive parts of the flower, their behaviour is easily assumed to be cheating . However, the effect of robbery on the plant is sometimes neutral or even positive. For example, the proboscis of Eurybia elvina does not come in contact with the reproductive parts of the flower in Calathea ovandensis, but this does not lead to significant reduction in fruit-set of

4209-444: The robbers. The last two methods of protection are physical barriers and indirect defence like symbionts . Tightly packed flowers and unfavourably sized corolla tubes, bract liquid moats and toughness of the corolla or sepal are barriers for some nectar robbers. A good example of an indirect defence is to attract symbiotic predators (like ants) by nectar or other rewards to scare away the robbers. The term 'resistance' refers to

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4278-415: The same or different visit. The holes created by primary robbers may attract more secondary robbers that commonly search for nectar and collect pollen from anthers during the same visit. Additionally, certain dense arrangements of flowers allow pollen to be transferred when robber birds pierce holes into flowers to access the nectar. Thus, plant reproduction can potentially be boosted from nectar robbing due to

4347-439: The season or even within a season. This inconsistency displayed in nectar robbing makes it difficult to label certain species as "thieves" and complicates research on the ecological phenomenon of nectar robbing. Pollination systems are mostly mutualistic, meaning that the plant benefits from the pollinator's transport of male gametes and the pollinator benefits from a reward, such as pollen or nectar. As nectar robbers receive

4416-484: The species is restricted to an area less than five million hectares (twelve million acres). Microorganisms were traditionally not believed to form endemics. The hypothesis 'everything is everywhere', first stated in Dutch by Lourens G.M. Baas Becking in 1934, describes the theory that the distribution of organisms smaller than 2 mm is cosmopolitan where habitats occur that support their growth. Endemism can reflect

4485-464: The status of a species that specifically belongs only to a determined place. The word endemic is from Neo-Latin endēmicus , from Greek ἔνδημος, éndēmos , "native". Endēmos is formed of en meaning "in", and dēmos meaning "the people". The word entered the English language as a loan word from French endémique , and originally seems to have been used in the sense of diseases that occur at

4554-424: The term 'aneuendemics' in 1991 for species that have more or fewer chromosomes than their relatives due to aneuploidy . Pseudoendemics are taxa that have possibly recently evolved from a mutation. Holoendemics is a concept introduced by Richardson in 1978 to describe taxa that have remained endemic to a restricted distribution for a very long time. In a 2000 paper, Myers and de Grave further attempted to redefine

4623-572: The threatened nature of a geographic region. A similar pattern had been found regarding mammals, Lasioglossum bees, Plusiinae moths, and swallowtail butterflies in North America: these different groups of taxa did not correlate geographically with each other regarding endemism and species richness. Especially using mammals as flagship species proved to be a poor system of identifying and protecting areas of high invertebrate biodiversity. In response to this, other scientists again defended

4692-566: Was formed in the Atlantic Forest , a biodiversity hotspot located in Brazil, in order to help protect valuable and vulnerable species. Other scientists have argued that endemism is not an appropriate measure of biodiversity, because the levels of threat or biodiversity are not actually correlated to areas of high endemism. When using bird species as an example, it was found that only 2.5% of biodiversity hotspots correlate with endemism and

4761-509: Was uncomfortable with the fact that the word ' endemic ' is often associated with diseases. 'Precinctive' was first used in botany by Vaughan MacCaughey in Hawaii in 1917. A species is considered to be endemic to the area where it is found naturally, to the exclusion of other areas; presence in captivity or botanical gardens does not disqualify a species from being endemic. In theory, the term "endemic" could be applied on any scale; for example,

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