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The effect of experience and floral traits on preferences and flower constancy in Eristalis tenax
Haveldová, Alice ; Janovský, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Mikát, Michael (referee)
Intraspecific pollen transfer is crucial for ensuring successful pollination and subsequent reproduction of many plant species. Mechanisms directly influenced by plants, that can increase the proportion of intraspecific pollen through their flower form (individual floral traits) are preferences and constancy of pollinators. The proportion of intraspecific pollen transfer increases with higher preferences or constancy of the pollinator. Pollinator preferences and constancy tend to change over its lifetime based on experience with the flowers they have visited. Very few studies have examined the effect of experience on preferences and especially constancy in relation to multiple floral traits in hoverflies (Syrphidae, Diptera), which are an important pollinator group. In this study, I investigated the degree of preference and constancy of common drone fly Eristalis tenax L (Syrphidae) as a function of two floral traits, colour and size, and as a function of experience. I did so by monitoring visits and flights in arrays of artificial flowers. The hoverflies were of two origins: naïve (reared under laboratory conditions, with no previous experience of visiting flowers) and experienced (captured in the wild with previous experience). Naïve individuals made decisions primarily based on colour, with size...
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