Flower constancy in insect pollinators: Adaptive foraging behaviour or cognitive limitation?

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Ressource 1Télécharger: BIB_704C95930F6E.P001.pdf (480.99 [Ko])
Etat: Public
Version: Final published version
ID Serval
serval:BIB_704C95930F6E
Type
Article: article d'un périodique ou d'un magazine.
Collection
Publications
Titre
Flower constancy in insect pollinators: Adaptive foraging behaviour or cognitive limitation?
Périodique
Communicative and Integrative Biology
Auteur⸱e⸱s
Grüter C., Ratnieks F.L.
ISSN
1942-0889 (Electronic)
ISSN-L
1942-0889
Statut éditorial
Publié
Date de publication
2011
Volume
4
Numéro
6
Pages
633-636
Langue
anglais
Résumé
As first noted by Aristotle in honeybee workers, many insect pollinators show a preference to visit flowers of just one species during a foraging trip. This "flower constancy" probably benefits plants, because pollen is more likely to be deposited on conspecific stigmas. But it is less clear why insects should ignore rewarding alternative flowers. Many researchers have argued that flower constancy is caused by constraints imposed by insect nervous systems rather than because flower constancy is itself an efficient foraging method. We argue that this view is unsatisfactory because it both fails to explain why foragers flexibly adjust the degree of flower constancy and does not explain why foragers of closely related species show different degrees of constancy. While limitations of the nervous system exist and are likely to influence flower constancy to some degree, the observed behavioural flexibility suggests that flower constancy is a successful foraging strategy given the insect's own information about different foraging options.
Pubmed
Création de la notice
21/02/2014 10:41
Dernière modification de la notice
20/08/2019 14:29
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