Peyote (& other cactus)POLLINATORS of South Texas

Acmaeodera is a genus of wood boring beetle that was recently observed on flowers of Peyote and Thelocactus in the South Texas borderlands. I assume this species of beetle also pollinates many other species of cactus. The type specimen was originally collected on a Opuntia flower in 1966, yet this is the first record of it on a peyote. The larvae bore into dead wood of Karwinskia humboldtiana (Rhamnaceae), Prosopis (Fabaceae) & Vachellia rigidula (aka Blackbrush”Acacia”, Fabaceae).

Quite likely the beetles are in the flowers eating pollen and floral parts, yet in doing so they inadvertently transfer pollen from anther to stigma, and ideally between respective flowers of different individuals for cross pollination. As Peyote flowers are self-fertile anyway, however, even transferring pollen between anther & stigma of the same flower would ensure higher seed production.

Seeing relationships firsthand and then wanting to know more eventually leads to understanding that indeed, everything is connected. It creates inadvertent ecologists out of us. In order to have the beetles, one needs the shrubs (Karwinskia, Vachellia, etc.). Everything in an ecosystem has a function, though we may not understand how all the pieces fit together at first.