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A Bumblebee collecting pollen from a chenille
stem flower.
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by Avery
Russell & Daniel Papaj
The foraging
behaviour of pollinators contributes greatly to the evolution of
plant-pollinator interactions. In return for the service of pollination,
flowering plants often offer food rewards to their pollinators. Pollinators
such as bees, many flies, beetles and some butterflies must collect pollen and
nectar, the two most common floral rewards, to survive and reproduce. Due to
their impressive cognitive abilities, many pollinators can be trained to forage
from artificial flowers, which allow experimenters to precisely control what
the pollinator experiences and to study their behaviour.
Read the whole summary in: English!
Read the scientific
publication in JPE.