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Honeybees prefer novel insect-pollinated flower shapes over bird-pollinated flower shapes
Plant–pollinator interactions have a fundamental influence on flower evolution. Flower color signals are frequently tuned to the visual capabilities of important pollinators such as either bees or birds, but far less is known about whether flower shape influences the choices of pollinators. We teste...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Oxford University Press
2019
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6688580/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31413718 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoy095 |
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author | Howard, Scarlett R Shrestha, Mani Schramme, Juergen Garcia, Jair E Avarguès-Weber, Aurore Greentree, Andrew D Dyer, Adrian G |
author_facet | Howard, Scarlett R Shrestha, Mani Schramme, Juergen Garcia, Jair E Avarguès-Weber, Aurore Greentree, Andrew D Dyer, Adrian G |
author_sort | Howard, Scarlett R |
collection | PubMed |
description | Plant–pollinator interactions have a fundamental influence on flower evolution. Flower color signals are frequently tuned to the visual capabilities of important pollinators such as either bees or birds, but far less is known about whether flower shape influences the choices of pollinators. We tested European honeybee Apis mellifera preferences using novel achromatic (gray-scale) images of 12 insect-pollinated and 12 bird-pollinated native Australian flowers in Germany; thus, avoiding influences of color, odor, or prior experience. Independent bees were tested with a number of parameterized images specifically designed to assess preferences for size, shape, brightness, or the number of flower-like shapes present in an image. We show that honeybees have a preference for visiting images of insect-pollinated flowers and such a preference is most-likely mediated by holistic information rather than by individual image parameters. Our results indicate angiosperms have evolved flower shapes which influence the choice behavior of important pollinators, and thus suggest spatial achromatic flower properties are an important part of visual signaling for plant–pollinator interactions. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6688580 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | Oxford University Press |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-66885802019-08-14 Honeybees prefer novel insect-pollinated flower shapes over bird-pollinated flower shapes Howard, Scarlett R Shrestha, Mani Schramme, Juergen Garcia, Jair E Avarguès-Weber, Aurore Greentree, Andrew D Dyer, Adrian G Curr Zool Special Column: Behavioural and Cognitive Plasticity in Foraging Pollinators Plant–pollinator interactions have a fundamental influence on flower evolution. Flower color signals are frequently tuned to the visual capabilities of important pollinators such as either bees or birds, but far less is known about whether flower shape influences the choices of pollinators. We tested European honeybee Apis mellifera preferences using novel achromatic (gray-scale) images of 12 insect-pollinated and 12 bird-pollinated native Australian flowers in Germany; thus, avoiding influences of color, odor, or prior experience. Independent bees were tested with a number of parameterized images specifically designed to assess preferences for size, shape, brightness, or the number of flower-like shapes present in an image. We show that honeybees have a preference for visiting images of insect-pollinated flowers and such a preference is most-likely mediated by holistic information rather than by individual image parameters. Our results indicate angiosperms have evolved flower shapes which influence the choice behavior of important pollinators, and thus suggest spatial achromatic flower properties are an important part of visual signaling for plant–pollinator interactions. Oxford University Press 2019-08 2018-12-13 /pmc/articles/PMC6688580/ /pubmed/31413718 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoy095 Text en © The Author(s) (2018). Published by Oxford University Press. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com |
spellingShingle | Special Column: Behavioural and Cognitive Plasticity in Foraging Pollinators Howard, Scarlett R Shrestha, Mani Schramme, Juergen Garcia, Jair E Avarguès-Weber, Aurore Greentree, Andrew D Dyer, Adrian G Honeybees prefer novel insect-pollinated flower shapes over bird-pollinated flower shapes |
title | Honeybees prefer novel insect-pollinated flower shapes over bird-pollinated flower shapes |
title_full | Honeybees prefer novel insect-pollinated flower shapes over bird-pollinated flower shapes |
title_fullStr | Honeybees prefer novel insect-pollinated flower shapes over bird-pollinated flower shapes |
title_full_unstemmed | Honeybees prefer novel insect-pollinated flower shapes over bird-pollinated flower shapes |
title_short | Honeybees prefer novel insect-pollinated flower shapes over bird-pollinated flower shapes |
title_sort | honeybees prefer novel insect-pollinated flower shapes over bird-pollinated flower shapes |
topic | Special Column: Behavioural and Cognitive Plasticity in Foraging Pollinators |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6688580/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31413718 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoy095 |
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