莲花山红交嘴雀取食松科植物的形态适应

Morphological and Food Profitability Adaptation to the Conifers of the Red Crossbill at Lianhuashan

红交嘴雀(Loxia curvirostra)因专性取食针叶树的种子,是研究种子采食者与植物之间协同进化关系的理想物种之一,它与松科植物的协同进化近年来受到诸多关注。2007～2008年,作者在甘肃省莲花山自然保护区,通过调查红交嘴雀(L.c.himalayanesis)的形态特征、取食生态和松科植物的特点,初步研究了其对当地松科植物形态的取食适应。结果表明,莲花山红交嘴雀主要以云杉(Picea crassifolia)种子为食,其形态特征,包括体长、喙形等均小于北美地区的红交嘴雀,表明莲花山红交嘴雀有别于北美地区的红交嘴雀,其较小的喙与专性取食云杉种子相对应。

Because of its focus of feeding on conifer seeds,the Red Crossbill（Loxia curvirostra） is one of the ideal species to study the coevolution between seed-prey animals and plants,and its coevolution to conifers has attracted much attention.We carried out investigation on the Red Crossbill ’s adaptation to conifers at Lianhuashan throughout the morphological differences and food profitability.These crossbills at Lianhuashan,with the spruce Picea crassifolia as their key conifer,are totally smaller than those in North America,both on body size and bill size,and their smaller bills adapted to the smaller seeds of the spruce trees.