Pollinators may be seeking more than just food as a reward when they choose one flower over another.
Abstract
Floral colour signals are used by pollinators as predictors of nutritional rewards, such as nectar1,2,3. But as insect pollinators often need to invest energy to maintain their body temperature4 above the ambient temperature, floral heat might also be perceived as a reward. Here we show that bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) prefer to visit warmer flowers and that they can learn to use colour to predict floral temperature before landing. In what could be a widespread floral adaptation, plants may modulate their temperature to encourage pollinators to visit.
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Dyer, A., Whitney, H., Arnold, S. et al. Bees associate warmth with floral colour. Nature 442, 525 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/442525a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/442525a
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