Abstract
AbstractIntraspecific floral colour polymorphism is a common trait of food deceptive orchids, which lure pollinators with variable, attractive signals, without providing food resources. The variable signals are thought to hinder avoidance learning of deceptive flowers by pollinators. Here, we analysed the cognitive mechanisms underlying the choice of free-flying stingless bees Scaptotrigona aff. depilis trained to visit a patch of artificial flowers that displayed the colours of Ionopsis utricularioides, a food deceptive orchid. Bees were trained in the presence of a non-rewarding colour and later tested with that colour vs. alternative colours. We simulated a discrete-polymorphism scenario with two distinct non-rewarding test colours, and a continuous-polymorphism scenario with three non-rewarding test colours aligned along a chromatic continuum. Bees learned to avoid the non-rewarding colour experienced during training. They thus preferred the novel non-rewarding colour in the discrete-polymorphic situation, and generalized their avoidance to the adjacent colour of the continuum in the continuous-polymorphism situation, favouring thereby the most distant colour. Bees also visited less flowers and abandoned faster a non-rewarding monomorphic patch than a non-rewarding polymorphic patch. Our cognitive analyses thus reveal that variable deceptive orchids disrupt avoidance learning by pollinators and exploit their generalization abilities, which make them favour distinct morphs.
Funder
Institut Universitaire de France
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Reference37 articles.
1. Menzel, R. Learning in honey bees in an ecological and behavioral context. in Experimental Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology (eds. Hölldobler, B. & Lindauer, M.) 55–74 (Gustav Fischer Verlag, 1985).
2. Chittka, L., Thomson, J. D. & Waser, N. M. Flower constancy, insect psychology, and plant evolution. Naturwissenschaften 86, 361–377 (1999).
3. Free, J. B. The flower constancy of honeybees. J. Anim. Ecol. 32, 119–131, https://doi.org/10.2307/2521 (1963).
4. Waser, N. M. Flower constancy: definition, cause, and measurement. Am. Nat. 127, 593–603 (1986).
5. Ackerman, J. D., Cuevas, A. A. & Hof, D. Are deception-pollinated species more variable than those offering a reward? Plant Syst. Evol. 293, 91–99 (2011).
Cited by
15 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献