Flower use by arboreal mammals and pollination of a rain forest tree in the south Western Ghats, India

ullenia exarillata (Bombacaceae), a common tree of south Western Ghats, flowers during times of fruit scarcity in the rain forest and thus attracts the entire diurnal and nocturnal frugivore com- munity. In addition to bats, the frugivores include many non- volant mammals and birds. Little information exists on the pollination mechanism of C. exarillata or on the major pollinators among its visitors. All mammal visitors to the tree eat the flowers, and a study was conducted from 1996 to 1998 on the role of these mammalian vectors in pollination of C. exarillata at Kakachi, a rain forest site in the Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve of south India. Data suggest that C. exarillata may represent the first docu- mented case of a predator-pollinator system for a mammal-pollinated tree spe