Essay On Carrion Flowers & Beetles Explores Their Relationship.

Please choose a topic on plant and animal interaction these the course topic to help you choose one and be more specific please and let me know before you start writting it to ask if its acceptable or not. 

Diversity of Life on Earth

-Diversity of organisms 

The diversity of life on earth is immense, with some estimates numbering it to be close to 100 million species due to large number of species which still remain undiscovered or un-described. Since the formation of the first single cellular organism more than 4 billion years ago, the process of evolution by natural selection have slowly carved out an enormous diversity of life forms from that single cellular ancestors (Araujo et al. 2018). More than 1.4 million of all species are insects making them one of the most abundant and diverse groups of animals. All life on the planet are broadly classified into five kingdoms such as prokaryotes, protists, fungi, plants and animals and each of these kingdoms are further classified into smaller and smaller groups based on shared traits, characteristics and genetic/hereditary similarities. Through the process of evolution by natural selection, many of the plant and animal species have developed a form of inter species relationships that could aid the survival of one or both of the partners by being beneficial or exploitative in nature (Rodríguez?Rodríguez et al. 2017).

-Plant Animal Interactions 

According to Junker and Parachnowitsch (2015), several complex forms of interactions developed between plants and animals due to their co-evolution that supported the development of traits that can benefit one or either participants (plants and animals) of the relation. The traits include various types of relationships between animals and plants, each having different impacts on the survivability of the plant and animal participants. These relations includes plant and herbivore relation, plant pollinator relation, plant dispenser relation and other mutualistic relations between plants and animals(such a relationship between ants and acacia plants, pitcher plants and bats or tobacco plants with tobacco wasps).

-Diversity in plant and animal interactions 

The diverse types of relation that exists between plants and animals can have different impacts on each of the participants. The relations can be mutualistic (causing benefits for both plant and animal participants) commensalism (in which one of the members are benefited from the relationship and the other member is not affected by it) and antagonistic (in which one of the member benefits from the relation at the cost of the survivability of the other member). Within these three categories, various types of relation can develop between plants and animals, with each member (plant/animal) having a specific role in the relation (Rodríguez?Rodríguez et al. 2017; Junker and Parachnowitsch 2015)

Plant-Animal Relationships

-Plant animal interactions across biomes 

Biomes can be understood as a community of animals and plants that share common characteristics that helps them to adapt to the environment of the place and the shared physical climate. Biomes can be terrestrial or aquatic and each type can be further classified based on variations in the environments (Araujo et al. 2018). For example, terrestrial biomes can include tundra, deciduous forests, taiga, temperate, grasslands, woodlands, desert and rain forest biomes. Each of these biomes is unique in terms of the physical conditions (such as temperature, moisture, soil minerals, soil type, precipitation, pH and seasonal variations) as well as biological environment (species diversity). The relations between the plants and animals are also influenced by the biomes in which they evolve (Peters et al. 2016). 

-Interaction between Amorphophallus and Carrion Beetles

One of the most unique of such relations is the one between carrion flowers belonging to the genus Amorphophallus and the carrion beetle belonging to the family Silphidae where the beetles are attracted by the plant by creating smells that resembles rotting flesh and thereby acts as pollinators for the plant. In this interaction the plant gains an advantage as the beetles helps in the pollination of the flowers, however, the beetles does not gain any significant advantage from the relation in terms of foraging success.

-Aim of the study 

The aim of the study is to explore the relationship that exist between carrion flowers (Amorphophallus sp) and carrion beetles belonging to the family Silphidae, how the flower attracts the beetles and how the relationship influence the survivability of either species.

-Overview of the study: 

The study would explore the relationship between Carrion Flower plant and Carrion Beetles and how the relation impacts either species in terms of their survivability based on a review of academic literature.

-Research Design

The design of the study would be that of a literature review in which academic literature on the topic would be analyzed to explore the research question/aim. The study would be use an exploratory approach to understand the relation between the two species and would be in the form of a non-experimental research in which the predictor data would not require manipulation by the researcher.

According to Campbell and Stanley (2015), this design can allow to develop and understanding of what is currently known about the topic under consideration and also identify any gaps in knowledge. Therefore such a strategy can help to further knowledge about a research topic as well as identify scopes for further research and development of knowledge about it (Blair et al. 2018).

Types of Relationships

-Research Method:

The method used for the research is a systematic review of secondary literature in which evidences from academic studies would be used to develop knowledge about the topic. Secondary data would be collected from the academic papers from peer reviewed journals (Johnston 2017).

-Research Data: 

The research data would involve secondary data from a systematic review of academic literature. The inclusion criteria for the data would include: peer reviewed journals, published within the last 5 years. The exclusion criterion would include papers published in non-English languages (Robinson et al. 2017).

-Data Collection and evaluation/analysis 

Data collection would be done from Academic, peer reviewed journals from Google Scholar, JSTOR, ProQuest and Cochrane online library. Thematic analysis would be done on the collected information from academic literature using the strategy of a systematic review, through which the relationship between the Carrion Flower plants and Carrion beetles can be explored and explained.

According to Booth et al (2016), a systematic review can help to provide a holistic, exhaustive and complete understanding of the current evidences pertaining to the research topic or research question and critically appraise them to evaluate their usefulness in the study.

-Ethical considerations

For the study several ethical considerations are necessary to ensure maintenance of academic code of conduct and ethical standards and principles of academic research (Silverman 2016).  The ethical considerations that would be applicable for the study includes ensuring that due credit is given to the original authors, ensuring that the work is not plagiarized and ideas proposed are original, ensuring transparency of the research process and method, identifying and flagging suspected cases of plagiarism or fraudulence, ensuring that the data is accurate and is not tampered with as well as clearly outlining any potential conflicts of interest from the study (Phillipset al. 2017).

-Internal and external validity 

In order to ensure internal validity of the study design, a pilot testing of the study process would be done to assess if the design is able to achieve its intended purpose (Leung 2015). External validity of the study design can be done by the process of triangulation and analyzing the design from multiple perspectives to identify any design flaws (Merriam and Grenier 2019).

From a systematic review of academic literature, the following important themes could be identified that are associated with the relation between carrion flowers and their pollinators (such as carrion beetles) and thereby understand the significance of this type of relationship on the plant and its pollinators.

Biomes and Relationships

-Plant pollination by insects 

-Plant and insect interactions

In order to facilitate pollination of plants, the plants have developed plant-pollinator relationships with variety of animal species. In this process, the animals transfer the pollen from one plant to another in order to enable fertilization of the female flowers by a process called cross fertilization (Wietzke et al. 2018). The animals that carry the pollen are called the zoo-vectors and can include insects, birds, reptiles and mammals. Through the process of co-evolution, the plant has developed certain properties that can help to attract the pollinators in the form of colors and odors that are typically attractive for those pollinators (Lindström et al. 2016).

-Entomophily

The relationship that exists between plants with their insect pollinators is called entomophily in which the plants have developed colored petals, strong scents and attractive shapes to attract insects such as hymenopterans (like wasps, bees and ants), coleopterans (like beetles), lepidopterans (like butterflies and moths) and dipterans (like flies). The entomophilous species of plants (plants that were pollinated by insects) have evolved various mechanisms to attract the insect pollinators based on their behavior and trophic behavior, and the floral scents therefore have evolved according to the preferences of their insect pollinators (Farré-Armengol et al. 2015).

The Carrion flower plants are a group of plant species (which includes Amorphophallus sp., Rafflesia sp., Stapelia sp., Smilax sp., and Bulbophyllum sp., that are mainly pollinated by carrion feeding beetles (belonging to the family Silphidae) and flesh flies (belonging to the family Sarcophagidae. These plants produce specific organic volatile compounds that smell like rotting flesh. Due to the distinctive smell of the flower (that resembles the smell of rotting flesh), insects such as carrion beetles and flies that feed on dead and decaying flesh are attracted to it and therefore are used by the plant to pollinate their flowers (Johnson 2016).

Amorphophallus species (such as Amorphophallus titanium) belonging to the family Araceae which grows in the equatorial rainforests of Indonesia and Sumatra blooms every 7 to 10 years and produces chemicals such as dimethyl trisulfide (which smells like cheese), trimethylalamine (which smells like rotting fish), indole (which smells like feces), isovaleric acid (which smells like old soiled socks), phenols (which smells lice Chloraseptic acids) and benzyl alcohol (which as a floral scent). These chemical scents are attractive to the insects that feed on dead and decaying matter such as certain beetles (carrion beetles) and flies (Kite and Hetterscheid 2017; Sun et al. 2016). 

Systematic Literature Review

-Reproductive strategies of plants

Various strategies are used by different plants for pollination and reproduction. The process of reproduction among plants can be achieved both sexually and asexually. Asexual reproduction or vegetative reproduction does not involve the transfer of gametes (pollen) and thus requires only a single parent to which the offspring is genetically identical (clone). Sexual reproduction on the other hand involves both male and female parts of the flower (on same or a different plant) between which the pollen is transferred (male part to female part) followed by fertilization and production of seeds. The pollination can either be self pollination (pollination within the same flower, or different flowers of the same plant) or cross pollination (pollination between flowers on two different plants) (Salguero-Gómezet al. 2016).

-How Amorphophallus evolved to enhance its reproductive success

According to Venner et al. (2016); Sapir et al. (2017) and Anderson (2016), in order to enhance the reproductive success of the plants such as Amorphophallus, several unique adaptations are exhibited by them.

These adaptations include:

1. Cross pollination: According to Sapir et al. (2017), the process of cross pollination is a special adaptation among the plants that allows mixing of the plant DNA from two parents and thereby creating an n offspring with a new genetic makeup. This process increases genetic variation within the species and thus supports better adaptability and survival fitness by increasing the diversity in the gene pool and therefore a significant sexual reproductive strategy if the plants. For Amorphophallus sp., this also ensures better ability to attract various species of carrion beetle by developing different variants of Volatile Organic Compounds that smells like various typesof decomposing organic matter.
2. Attracting pollinators:Several plants produce specific chemical compounds to attract specific types of pollinators to facilitate the process of pollination. These attractants allows the plants to use the pollinators as vectors to spread the pollen to other plants as these pollinators visit one plant to another. Other plants use specific colors, floral patterns and flower shapes that can attract the pollinators to visit the plant and collect/deposit the pollen from the male parts (anthers) or to the female parts (stamen) of the flowers (Dutton et al. 2016). For Amorphophallus, olfactory attractants are produced that are specific to carrion beetles in order to attract them to its flowers.
3. Flower Shapes:Some plants have co evolved with specific insect vectors to maximize the potential of pollination by those vectors. For example, certain species of figs have evolved to be pollinated by the wasps. The shape of the fig flowers have shapes similar to female wasps thereby attracting male wasps to mate and thereby also collect pollen from the plant to be transferred to another plant that would be visited by the wasp (Galenet al. 2017). The shape of the Amorphophophallus flowers are evolved in such as way so as to act as traps for the beetles once they approach the flower, which facilitates the process of transfer of pollen from the flower to the beetle and vice versa.
4. Structure of pollen:The pollen of the plants pollinated by insects is specially modified that allows the pollen to be light weight and easily carried by the vectors (Galenet al. 2017). The Amorphophallus pollens are also adapted to be extremely light weight so that it can be easily carried by the insects.
5. Totipotency of seeds: The Totipotency is the biological ability of cells to differentiate and form the entire organism. The cells inside the seeds are totipotent which allows it to develop into the entire plant (Calvi et al. 2017). The Amoprphphallus seeds are also covered with a resilient outer coat which can protect it against adverse weathers and germinate under the right environmental conditions.
6. Provision of resources to the embryo: The embryo inside the seeds also have adequate resources that allows it to survive for a long time before it is exposed to favorable conditions necessary for germination. This allows the seeds to be carried for longer distances and survive longer under hostile conditions (Galenet al. 2017). Seeds of Amorphophallus also stores deposits of carbohydrates which act as reservoir food for the seed and thus ensure it can survive hard weather conditions before germinating under the right condition.
7. Outcrossing: This is a strategy in which plants utilize vectors to facilitate pollination between different plant breeds. This strategy helps to increase genetic diversity and reduces the risks of genetic abnormalities among the offspring’s (Maron et al. 2018). The pollination by insects also supports Outcrossing for Amorphophallus therefore helping them to further increase its genetic diversity and adaptability.

-Importance of out crossing for Amorphophallus:

According to Maron et al. (2018), out crossing is the process of breeding between different breeds of species. This process can have several important advantages for the species such as:

Increasing genetic variability/diversity: Porcher  and Lande (2016) suggested that out crossing as well as cross pollination increases variability and diversity of the gene pool by introducing new genetic materials caused by the reshuffling and recombination of parental DNA thereby leading to the creation of a completely new and unique genetic material of the offspring. Thus with every generation, new genetic materials are created thereby increasing variability and diversity of gene pool.

Removes harmful traits and alleles from the gene pool: Increase in the variability and diversity of the gene pool also helps to remove harmful traits that are carried by unhealthy recessive alleles of healthy gene. This is caused mainly by increasing the number of healthy genes and their alleles in the gene pool which reduces the probability of offspring to inherit genetic abnormalities from the parents in the form of the unhealthy recessive alleles (Snow et al. 2015).

Improves adaptability of the species: Greater genetic diversity also can support better adaptability among the species by fostering the creation of more genetic variations. These variations can be favorable to the species and give them a competitive advantage over others and thereby allow them to adapt to the environment and the stressors of natural selection. This ability to adapt and survive to the environment therefore promotes adaptability among the species and therefore their ability to survive (Kainer et al. 2015).

Ethical Considerations

Prevents inbreeding depression: Inbreeding depression can be caused when the genetic diversity within a gene pool is slowly lost over generations of in-breeding and self-pollination. This increases the number of harmful traits and reduces the survivability o the offspring due to genetic defects and abnormalities being passed from the parents. Cross breeding however prevents such a genetic aberration and prevents inbreeding depression among the species (Lande and Porcher 2017).

Prevents genetic drift:  Genetic drift is the process of a change or shift in the genetic makeup of the gene pool of a species. This is caused when there is a limited variability within the gene pool which allows random mutations and aberrations within the gene pool more relevant and impacts the entire pool. Genetic drift can also changes the frequency of variations among an existing variant of a gene which dictates whether a given individual can survive long enough to reproduce. Since too much genetic drift can lead to extinction of a species, reduction of genetic drift can enhance species survivability (Kainer et al. 2015). 

-Adaptations to secure Outcrossing in pollination for Amorphophallus

In order to promote Outcrossing, cross fertilization and cross pollination among the flowers, amorphophallus have unique adaptations. These adaptations include:

Dichogamy among flowers: Amorphophallus flowers are bisexual and have their male and female parts mature at different times. Due to this, self pollination is prevented as either the male or the female part of the flower is not ready to produce or receive pollen. Due to this, self pollination of the flowers is not possible under natural circumstances thereby ensuring that the pollen do not ransfer from the male to the female part of the same plant.

Heterostyly: In addition, Carrion flowers are evolved to insect pollination so that the shape and length of the male and female parts are incompatible to each other as a result of which self pollination among them becomes improbable and can only be done when a beetle enters the flower, thereby coming incontact with the male or female part.

Heikogamy: In this strategy, physical barriers are formed between the male and female parts to prevent the transfer of pollen between them and thus prevent self pollination. For Amorphophallus, the structure of the plant also acts as a barrier for pollen to transfer from the male to female part of the same flower

Olfactory Cues: Flowers with strong smells can also attract several types of insects. Different insects can have different sensitivities to different smells. The flowers often produce smells that are specific to a group of insects who are sensitive to such smells. For example, flies and carrion beetles are sensitive to the smell of rotting flesh and therefore plants such as carrion flower plants have evolved the flowers to smell like rotten meat to attract such insects to them.

Internal and External Validity

 (Kainer et al. 2015; Lande and Porcher 2017; Snow et al. 2015; Maron et al. 2018)

-Commensalistic Interaction between Carrion flowers (Amorphophallus sp) and Carrion Beetles (of the family: Silphidae)

The relationship between carrion flowers and carrion beetles can be considered to be a commensalistic one in which one of the members of the partnership benefits from the relation, while the other partner is not affected significantly in terms of its survivability and fitness. The plant benefits from the relation from the process of pollination and therefore ensuring survival of the species. The beetles on the other hand are only ‘fooled’ by the odor of the flower that only mimics the smell of rotting flesh. The beetle also loses a foraging opportunity and therefore indirectly also might reduce its survival fitness (Kite and Hetterscheid 2017).

Amorphophallus sp are large plants that grow from an underground tuber. The shape of the tuber varies from species to species such as globular (for A. konjac), clustered (for Acolaetaeneus) or elongated (for A.longitubrosis). From this underground tuber rises a petiole atop which a single leaf, several meters long sits. The flower of the plant grows on top of the petiole which resembles a tree trunk. The flowers of the plant are ovate or elongated due to the structure of the floral brackets that covers the spadix. The flowers have spikes with fleshy axis and the inner lining of the spathe contains warts or ridges that can work as insect traps. During the blooming season the spathe opens for pollination to occur (Pan et al. 2015). The pollination also needs to complete on the same day otherwise the eggs would not fertilize. During this time, the flowers of the Amorphophallus plant emit a smell which resembles decaying meat. This smell attracts the flesh beetles that are attracted by the smell, confusing the flower as decaying flesh. Upon entering he flower, the beetle gets trapped inside the spathe and the pollen on the body of the insect gets transferred to the flower. The insect remain trapped for the whole day, and before the trap opens, the anther of the flower deposits the pollen grain on the body of the insect. Meanwhile, by the time the spathe opens, the stigma of the flower is no longer active and self-pollination becomes unlikely. Once the beetle escapes the spathe, it can visit another flower and the process repeats again (Liu et al. 2017).

Entomophily and Co-evolution

In this plant-animal interaction the beetle gains no advantage in terms of resources or improved survival chances. Some authors have proposed that the interaction can have indirect effects on the survivability of the beetles (Ulrich et al 2017). According to Ulrich et al (2017), the flower can disrupt the foraging process of the insect and therefore can actually reduce its survivability. However, Coulter and Baldock (2016) argued that being trapped in the spathe of the Amorphophallus flower even if inconvenient also temporarily protects the insect from its predators and thus can also be beneficial to the insect.

The plants on the other hand clearly benefits from the relation in terms of the sustenance of its species and its own reproductive success. Studies by Ulrich et al (2017) show that the scent produce by the flowers can enhance the reproductive success of Amorphophallus sp. as well as other plants belonging to the corpse flower category. In the study the researchers removed a part of the flowers that are associated with the production of the smell, and it was observed that those plants had much less rate of pollination by insects as the insects were no longer attracted by the flowers. The studies also showed that the shape of the flower evolved so as to allow the beetle to move between the male part and the female part of the flower. According to Coulter and Baldock (2016), this movement of the beetle also promotes the process of pollination to occur and the anthers to deposit the pollen grains on the body of the insect.

-Olfactory Attractants for Amorphophallus

In order to attract pollinators, plants use different strategies; one of those strategies is the use of olfactory attractants. The olfactory attractants generally are pleasant smelling and are created by compounds such as farnesol, monopterene, geraniol, Methyl salicylate, linalool, Benzyl methyl ether and beta-ocimene. These chemical compounds, released by the plants give a sweet or fruity odor which attracts different types of pollinators (Kite and Hetterscheid 2017).

Amorphophallus on the other hand produces an odor that is noxious and smells like rotting flesh. The smell of the flower is caused by simple chemical compounds mainly comprising of dimethyl olisosulphates (Raman et al. 2017). Studies by Brodie et al. (2018), on 18 species of Amorphophallus identified 17 volatile organic compounds that cause the characteristic odor of the plant. These chemicals include: dimethyl disulphide, dimethyl trisulphide, dimethyl tetrasulphide, 4-Methoxyphenethyl alcohol, trimethylalamine, isoamyl acetate, isocaprioc acid, ethyl acetate, ocimene, 2-heptanone, indole, acetic acid, limonene, acetophenone, 1-phenylethyl acetate, 1.2 dimethyloxybenzene, phenylethyl alcohol. The types of odur these chemical compounds emit includes: rotting meat, gaseous, smell of urine, smell of dung, anise like smell, smell of fried fish and smell of strong cheese.

Carrion Flowers and Carrion Beetles

According to Kite and Hetterscheid 2017, smell of rotting meat, cheese, rotting fish, dung, urine or feces is strong olfactory stimuli for flies and carrion beetles. The carrion beetles are especially drawn to the smell of rotting flesh. Beetles belonging to the family Silphidae feed on dead and decaying organic matter. The volatile organic compounds liberated from the organic matter due to the process of decomposition or putrefaction is strong olfactory cues for the beetles to locate the decomposing flesh based on the source of the smell. The beetles then colonies the rotting carrion through all the four stages of decomposition (fresh, boating, decomposing and dried). The beetle’s then lays eggs on the carrion and the beetle larvae or maggots also feed on the rotting flesh as they grow.

Since the volatile organic compounds liberated by the Carrion flower plant are the same as those liberated from decomposing meat, the beetles easily confuse the smell of the Amorphophallus flower for a corpse (Brodie et al. 2018).

-Recent studies in Amorphophallus sp and carrion beetle relationship 

Studies by Kite and Hetterscheid (2017) studied the Phylogenetic trends in the evolution of inflorescence odors in Amorphophallus. The study analyzed the chemical compositions of inflorescence odors of 80 species of Amorphophallus and found that dimethyl oligosulphides are the most common constituent of the organic volatile compounds produced as chemical attractants. The studies found that in completely unrelated clades of Amorphophallus, 1 and 2 phenylethanoidsare produced by the flowers which show a process of convergent evolution and Phylogenetic constraints. Moreover a plasticity of odors was also noticed among various species of Amorphophallus. The variation and diversity in the chemical compounds and the odors of the Amorphophallus flowers is also influenced significantly by the pollinator resources. The selective pressure of the pollinators towards flowers that most closely resemble the smell of rotting flesh are more likely to be selected by the insects and therefore such selection both creates a variation as well as sets a limit to the variation of the smell that can attract them.

Studies by Johnson (2016) and Kite and Hetterscheid (2017)  shows that carrion flowers have independently evolved to various lineages of plants and are present throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the world however several gaps in the current knowledge about the relationship between carrion flowers such as Amorphophallus and Silphidae beetles exits and provide scopes for future research. Additional studies can be made to explore the reasons of unusually large flowers of Amorphophallus, the association of the mimicry of the smell of carrion with the evolution of insect traps. 

Pollinator Attraction Mechanisms

-Impacts of the relationship on geospatial distribution of Amorphophallus sp and Carrion Beetles. 

Schiestl (2017) pointed out that the evolution and ecology of Amorphoplhallus is closely associated with detritus ad carrion feeding insects such as carrion beetles. The Amorphophallus plants that smell of decaying flesh can only get pollinated in regions where carrion feeding insects are present. Due to this the pollination of the Amorphophallus species is respected by the geographic locations of the carrion beetles. Since the tropic and sup tropic regions are ideal for most species of insects, including beetles, the Amorphophallus species can be seen in these regions.

Forensic researches have shown that carrion beetles colonize the carrion in predictable ways and are significantly sensitive to changes in the volatile organic compounds liberated from the decomposition. The changes occur at every stage of decomposition these changes trigger changes in the feeding habit and life cycle of the beetle (Krinsky 2019). The Amorphophallus plant also mimics the changes in the volatile organic compounds produced to mimic the stages of decomposition. Due to this the distribution of the flies can also be impacted by the presence of the Amorphophallus plant as they would attract more beetles to the region (Tomberlin et al. 2017).

Conclusion: 

Since the evolution of the first single cellular ancestors more than 4 billion years ago, almost 100 million species have evolved through the slow process of evolution by natural selection. The process of natural selection favored characteristics and traits that could improve survival chances of a species and give them a competitive advantage over resources. One of such trait is a form of relationship between plant and animals in a way that can be mutualistic, commensalic or antagonistic. In each of these types of interaction, there is diversity in the strategies used and the plant and animal species involved in the relation. Since insects are one of the most abundant animal species on the planet, inhabiting almost every biome and trophic niche, the plants have co evolved several adaptation to facilitate its relation with the insects. One of the most unique of this relationship is the one between Amorphophallus and Silphidae beetle. The relation between these species is a commensalic one, which only increases the survival fitness of the plant. The aim of the study is to explore the relation between these two species and how the relation affects the survival of either species.

For the study a systematic review of literature is done to develop knowledge about the current understanding of the topic and also to identify the gaps in knowledge. Academic literature from peer reviewed journals has been searched for through database libraries such as JSTOR, JSTOR, ProQuest and Cochrane online library and Google Scholar. Studies made in the last five years and published in English were selected for the review and the data was thematically analyzed for the study.

Organic Volatile Compounds

From the study, the diversity of plant pollinator interactions was identified and how the plants attract the pollinators through visual or olfactory cues. The reproductive strategies of the plants that help the plants to achieve reproductive success and complete the process of pollination successfully are also discussed. Discussions on the evolutionary importance of out crossing was made to relate how cross pollination supports Outcrossing and fitness of the species. Different plant adaptations to secure cross pollination were then outlined to provide context to the adaptations and co evolution of plant and animal characteristics.

The commensalic interaction between Amorphophallus sp and Silphidae beetles were also analyzed from the literature to describe how the relationship works, and how the pollination occurs in Amorphophallus with the aid of the beetles. The olfactory attractants used by Amorphophallus to attract beetles was also identified from different studies and compared to the volatile organic compounds released for decomposing organic matter to study the similarities. Recent studies on the relation between the two species were also discussed briefly followed by how the relation impacts the distribution of either species to fully understand the impact of the relation on the survivability of the species. 

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