FIRST VERIFIED RECORD OF ORNITHOPHILY IN Calathea (Marantaceae)

The study goals were to investigate the flowering phenology, the floral biology, and the floral visitors of Calatheacrocata. The data was collected in an understory fragment of Atlantic Forest at Igrapiuna city, state of Bahia. Field expeditions were conducted by month from July 2009 to August 2011. Every month flowering phenology data was documented. Besides floral morphometry, volume and concentration of nectar data, the floral attributes of C. crocata were collected. Hummingbird species that visited the plant was registered by focal observations in breeding plants from sunrise to sunrise, establishing the frequency and forage behavior. Natural pollination and self-pollination tests were conducted, in addition to trigger efficiency. The breeding season is annual, and has intermediate duration, being negatively correlated with the temperature. Calatheacrocata is an ornithophilous species; its flowers are tubular, with yellow corollas of 24,3mm of length average, and 2,6mm of aperture average. The nectar has a sugar's concentration average of 21%, and a volume's average production of 9,4 mu l. The flowers were visited legitimately by four hummingbird species. The visits frequency was 0,69 visits per inflorescence/hour, all of them were able to release the trigger. Phaethornisruber was the mainly pollen vector of C. crocata. Calatheacrocata is an allogamous species, and is not capable of spontaneous self-pollination: just the natural pollination test produced fruits. More specific features, as the trigger reduction, visible in this species, can be an evolutionary evidence from melitophily to ornithophily already seen in Marantaceae family, but not too noted on the genre.