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Article: Pollen digestion by Darwin's finches and its importance for early breeding.
- Article from:
- Ecology
- Article date:
- March 1, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 Ecological Society of America. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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INTRODUCTION
Pollen is a rich source of protein (Faegri and van der Pijl 1971, Stanley and Linskens 1974:154), but the extent to which it can be used as a nitrogen source by many animals is debatable because the exine, or outer coat of the pollen grain, is highly resistant to degradation by digestive enzymes (Heslop-Harrison 1971).
Pollen feeding has been reported for many species of arthropods (Gilbert 1972, Smith and Mommsen 1984, Peng et al. 1986), bats (Howell 1974, Law 1992), marsupials (Turner 1984, Richardson et al. 1986), and several species of birds (Churchill and Christensen 1970, Grant and Grant 1981, 1989, Paton 1981, Grant 1986, Wooller et al. ...