Biesmeijer Jacobus C, Giurfa Martin, Koedam Dirk, Potts Simon G, Joel Daniel M, Dafni Amots
Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK.
Naturwissenschaften. 2005 Sep;92(9):444-50. doi: 10.1007/s00114-005-0017-6. Epub 2005 Oct 28.
Several recent hypotheses, including sensory drive and sensory exploitation, suggest that receiver biases may drive selection of biological signals in the context of sexual selection. Here we suggest that a similar mechanism may have led to convergence of patterns in flowers, stingless bee nest entrances, and pitchers of insectivorous plants. A survey of these non-related visual stimuli shows that they share features such as stripes, dark centre, and peripheral dots. Next, we experimentally show that in stingless bees the close-up approach to a flower is guided by dark centre preference. Moreover, in the approach towards their nest entrance, they have a spontaneous preference for entrance patterns containing a dark centre and disrupted ornamentation. Together with existing empirical evidence on the honeybee's and other insects' orientation to flowers, this suggests that the signal receivers of the natural patterns we examined, mainly Hymenoptera, have spontaneous preferences for radiating stripes, dark centres, and peripheral dots. These receiver biases may have evolved in other behavioural contexts in the ancestors of Hymenoptera, but our findings suggest that they have triggered the convergent evolution of visual stimuli in floral guides, stingless bee nest entrances, and insectivorous pitchers.
包括感官驱动和感官利用在内的一些近期假说表明，在性选择的背景下，接收者偏差可能会驱动对生物信号的选择。在此，我们提出一种类似的机制可能导致了花朵、无刺蜂巢穴入口和食虫植物捕虫笼的图案趋同。对这些不相关视觉刺激的一项调查显示，它们具有条纹、深色中心和周边圆点等共同特征。接下来，我们通过实验表明，在无刺蜂中，靠近花朵的行为是由对深色中心的偏好引导的。此外，在接近它们的巢穴入口时，它们对包含深色中心和破碎装饰的入口图案有自发偏好。结合关于蜜蜂和其他昆虫对花朵定向的现有实证证据，这表明我们所研究的自然图案的信号接收者，主要是膜翅目昆虫，对放射状条纹、深色中心和周边圆点有自发偏好。这些接收者偏差可能在膜翅目昆虫祖先的其他行为背景中就已进化，但我们的研究结果表明，它们引发了花朵引导物、无刺蜂巢穴入口和食虫植物捕虫笼中视觉刺激的趋同进化。
