Should food-deceptive species flower before or after rewarding species? An experimental test of pollinator visitation behaviour under contrasting phenologies.

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_5518C61A1CBD
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Should food-deceptive species flower before or after rewarding species? An experimental test of pollinator visitation behaviour under contrasting phenologies.
Journal
Journal of Evolutionary Biology
Author(s)
Internicola A.I., Bernasconi G., Gigord L.D.
ISSN
1420-9101[electronic]
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2008
Volume
21
Number
5
Pages
1358-1365
Language
english
Abstract
Many plant species reward their pollinators, whereas some species, particularly among orchids, do not. Similarity of floral cues between co-flowering species influences how rapidly pollinators learn to avoid deceptive plants. This learning process, which affects the reproductive success of deceptive plants, may additionally depend on relative timing of flowering of sympatric rewarding and deceptive species. We tested the combined effects of corolla colour similarity and flowering order of rewarding and deceptive artificial inflorescences on visitation by naïve bumblebees. When deceptive inflorescences were offered after rewarding inflorescences, bumblebees visited them four times more often if both species were similar compared with when they were dissimilar. Pollinator visitation rate to deceptive inflorescences offered before rewarding inflorescences was intermediate and independent of similarity. Thus, early-flowering deceptive species avoid the costs of dissimilarity with rewarding species. This mechanism may favour adaptive evolution of flowering phenology in deceptive species and explain why temperate deceptive orchids usually flower earlier than rewarding ones.
Keywords
Animals, Bees, Color, Feeding Behavior, Flowers/physiology, Orchidaceae/physiology, Pollination, Reward
Pubmed
Web of science
Open Access
Yes
Create date
26/05/2008 12:49
Last modification date
20/08/2019 14:09
Usage data