Authors
Jana Jersáková, Andreas Jürgens, Petr Šmilauer, Steven D Johnson
Publication date
2012/12
Journal
Functional Ecology
Volume
26
Issue
6
Pages
1381-1389
Description
- Some orchids have been proposed to be Batesian floral mimics imitating flowers of sympatric rewarding species to attract pollinators. It is not yet well understood which traits are critical for pollinator attraction, although colour, shape and scent have all been implicated.
- We conducted field‐based behavioural experiments using pairwise combinations of plastic flowers differing in spectral and shape properties offered to long‐proboscid tabanid flies (Philoliche aethiopica) at two sites – one where the fly‐pollinated orchid mimic Disa pulchra occurs with its pink‐flowered model, the iris Watsonia lepida and another where the flies forage on a blue‐flowered rewarding plant Agapanthus campanulatus.
- Flies intensively visited and probed plastic flowers of colours indistinguishable in a fly vision model from those of the rewarding plants. Inflorescence architecture and brightness of plastic flowers made little difference to fly …
Scholar articles
J Jersáková, A Jürgens, P Šmilauer, SD Johnson - Functional Ecology, 2012