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Schlagwörter:
Anthocyanin
Antirrhinum majus
Bombus terrestris
Pigmentation
Venation
bee
behavioral ecology
dominance
flower
foraging behavior
herb
pigment
plant-pollinator interaction
pollination
animal
animal behavior
Antirrhinum
article
histology
physiology
Animals
Bees
Behavior, Animal
Flowers
Apoidea
Magnoliophyta
Zusammenfassung:
Patterns of pigmentation overlying the petal vasculature are common in flowering plants and have been postulated to play a role in pollinator attraction. Previous studies report that such venation patterning is significantly more attractive to bee foragers in the field than ivory or white flowers without veins. To dissect the ways in which venation patterning of pigment can influence bumblebee behaviour, we investigated the response of flower-naïve individuals of Bombus terrestris to veined, ivory and red near-isogenic lines of Antirrhinum majus. We find that red venation shifts flower colour slightly, although the ivory background is the dominant colour. Bees were readily able to discriminate between ivory and veined flowers under differential conditioning but showed no innate preference when presented with a free choice of rewarding ivory and veined flowers. In contrast, both ivory and veined flowers were selected significantly more often than were red flowers. We conclude that advantages conferred by venation patterning might stem from bees learning of their use as nectar guides, rather than from any innate preference for striped flowers. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.
