Avoidance of achromatic colours by bees provides a private niche for hummingbirds
Avoidance of achromatic colours by bees provides a private niche for hummingbirds
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DOI：
10.1242/jeb.052688
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发表时间：
2011-05-01
影响因子：
2.8
通讯作者：
Sazima, Marlies
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Lunau, Klaus;Papiorek, Sarah;Sazima, Marlies
几十年来，人们已经知道蜂鸟授粉的植物主要是红色的花，但经过充分调查的研究仍然很少。偏好测试表明，蜂鸟对红色没有天生的偏好。此外，蜂鸟并不仅仅依赖于红色的花朵，因为白色花朵的蜂鸟授粉植物也很常见，而且暂时很丰富。在这里，我们表明，无论是白色和红色蜂鸟授粉的花朵不同蜜蜂授粉的花朵在其反射特性的紫外线（UV）光。蜂鸟授粉的红色花朵平均而言紫外线反射率较低，而白色蜂鸟授粉的花朵比相同颜色的蜜蜂授粉的花朵更能反射紫外线。在对人造花的偏好测试中，新热带兰花蜜蜂更喜欢红色的紫外线反射人造花和白色紫外线不反射花，而不是具有相反紫外线特性的红色和白色花。相比之下，蜂鸟在相同的测试中对任何颜色都没有偏好。将花卉颜色和测试刺激绘制到蜜蜂的感知颜色空间中表明，不太吸引人的颜色对蜜蜂来说是无色的，因此更难以在背景中检测到。蜜蜂的这种潜在的颜色偏好可能为蜂鸟提供了一个对蜜蜂没有吸引力的私人利基。
That hummingbird-pollinated plants predominantly have red flowers has been known for decades, but well-investigated research studies are still rare. Preference tests have shown that hummingbirds do not have an innate preference for red colours. In addition, hummingbirds do not depend solely upon red flowers, because white-flowered hummingbird-pollinated plants are also common and temporarily abundant. Here we show that both white and red hummingbird-pollinated flowers differ from bee-pollinated flowers in their reflection properties for ultraviolet (UV) light. Hummingbird-pollinated red flowers are on average less UV reflective, and white hummingbird-pollinated flowers are more UV reflective than the same coloured bee-pollinated ones. In preference tests with artificial flowers, neotropical orchid bees prefer red UV-reflecting artificial flowers and white UV-nonreflecting flowers over red and white flowers with the opposite UV properties. By contrast, hummingbirds showed no preference for any colour in the same tests. Plotting floral colours and test stimuli into the honeybees' perceptual colour space suggests that the less attractive colours are achromatic for bees and therefore more difficult to detect against the background. This underlying colour preference in bees might provide hummingbirds with a private niche that is not attractive to bees.