Balfour Nicholas J, Ratnieks Francis L W
Laboratory of Apiculture & Social Insects, School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QG, UK.
Insects. 2023 Jan 26;14(2):130. doi: 10.3390/insects14020130.
Flower evolution includes a range of questions concerning the function of showy morphological features such as petals. Despite extensive research on the role of petals in attracting pollinators, there has been little experimental testing of their importance in attracting naïve versus experienced flower-visitors. In an exploratory field study, we manipulated the ray petals of inflorescences of two garden flowers, and to test the hypothesis that these showy structures primarily function to attract first-time, naïve, visitors. On their first inflorescence visit to both species, naïve honey bees and bumble bees were more likely to visit intact inflorescences, than those with ray petals removed. However, by the tenth consecutive inflorescence on the same visit to the flower patch, test insects showed no preference. A positive correlation was observed between the visitation of inflorescences with zero petals and inflorescence number on both study plants, for both bees. These results suggest that a key function of showy petals is to attract naïve, first-time visitors. Similar to how a restaurant attracts diners with a large sign, showy signals may be vital to enticing first-time visitors when competing with other establishments or plants for customers or pollinators. We hope the findings of this exploratory study will stimulate further work in this area.
花的进化包含一系列有关艳丽形态特征（如花瓣）功能的问题。尽管对花瓣在吸引传粉者方面的作用进行了广泛研究，但对于花瓣在吸引初次访花者与经验丰富的访花者方面的重要性，几乎没有进行过实验测试。在一项探索性的实地研究中，我们对两种园林花卉花序的舌状花瓣进行了处理，以检验这些艳丽结构主要功能是吸引初次访花的、毫无经验的访花者这一假设。在初次访花时，对于这两个物种，初次访花的蜜蜂和熊蜂比起那些舌状花瓣被移除的花序，更有可能访问完整的花序。然而，在同一次访问花丛中连续第十次访花时，受试昆虫没有表现出偏好。对于两种蜜蜂而言，在两种研究植物上，花瓣数为零的花序的访花情况与花序数量之间均观察到正相关。这些结果表明，艳丽花瓣的一个关键功能是吸引初次访花的、毫无经验的访花者。就像餐馆用一个大招牌吸引食客一样，当与其他场所或植物竞争顾客或传粉者时，艳丽的信号对于吸引初次访花者可能至关重要。我们希望这项探索性研究的结果将激发该领域的进一步研究。
