bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/819136; this version posted October 25, 2019. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. A specialized deceptive pollination system based on elaborate mushroom mimicry Satoshi Kakishima1, Nobuko Tuno2, Kentaro Hosaka1, Tomoko Okamoto3, Takuro Ito1, and Yudai Okuyama1* 1. Tsukuba Botanical Garden, National Museum of Nature and Science, Amakubo 4-1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305- 0005, Japan 2. Laboratory of Ecology, Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa 920-1192, Japan. 3. Laboratory of Insect Ecology, Faculty of Applied Biological Sciences, Gifu University, Yanagido 1-1, Gifu 501- 1193, Japan *Author for correspondence: Yudai Okuyama e-mail:
[email protected] phone: +81-29-853-8435 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/819136; this version posted October 25, 2019. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. Abstract Despite its potential effectiveness for outcrossing, few examples of pollination via mushroom mimicry have been reported. This may be because the conditions under which the strategy can evolve are limited and/or because demonstrating it is challenging. Arisaema is a plant genus that has been suggested to adopt mushroom mimicry for pollination, although no compelling evidence for this has yet been demonstrated.