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First published online April 18, 2006
Journal of Experimental Biology 209, 1585-1593 (2006)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2006
doi: 10.1242/jeb.02169
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The role of mechanosensory input in flower handling efficiency and learning by Manduca sexta

Joaquín Goyret* and Robert A. Raguso

Department of Biological Sciences, Coker Life Sciences Building, 700 Sumter Street, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA


Figure 1
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  		Fig. 1. Five different two-dimensional flower morphs tested in Experiment 1. (A) `No transparency' paper flowers, whose surfaces are covered with acetate film cut to their exact shape, to control for fine texture. (B) `Transparency' flowers covered with a square (9 cmx9 cm) sheet of acetate film. Arrows and brackets indicate a priori comparisons: (I) `half lobes vs medium disks' compares flowers that have different surface area but the same edge-to-center distances. (II) `Half lobes vs small disks' compares flowers with similar surface area but different edge-to-center distances. Note: all flowers have accessible nectaries at their centers.

 

Figure 2
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  		Fig. 2. Three-dimensional flower morphs tested in Experiment 2. Medium disk: same disk as in Fig. 1. Radial folds: medium disk with two groove-like folds along two perpendicular diameters of the disk. Chord folds: medium disk with two groove-like folds along two parallel chords, each 1.5 cm apart from the origin of the disk.

 

Figure 3
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  		Fig. 3. Number of emptied flowers (foraging efficiency; mean ± s.e.m.) after a 10 min foraging bout by individual Manduca sexta inside the flight chamber. In each treatment (abscissa) an array of 12 artificial flowers of the same morph was present. Black bars represent responses to artificial flowers without square transparency film; gray bars represent responses to the same artificial flowers covered with a square transparency film. Different letters denote statistically significant differences with a corrected {alpha}-level for significance of 0.008 (see text).

 

Figure 4
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  		Fig. 4. Discovery time (probing time between feeding attempts) for four different treatments. (A) Full lobe, (B) full lobe with transparency film, (C) large disk and (D) large disk with transparency film. Data points are medians, whiskers represent first and third quartiles. Statistical values refer to goodness-of-fit to an exponential decline function (one factor), a classical `learning curve'. Moths exploiting full lobe flowers with no transparency film show exponentially decreasing discovery times. When exploiting large disks, or either shape with transparency film, moths show larger variances in their responses, which do not fit an exponential decline function.

 

Figure 5
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  		Fig. 5. Three-dimensional corolla features affect foraging efficiency by Manduca sexta. The vertical bars represent number of flowers (mean ± s.e.m.) emptied after a 10 min foraging bout by individual moths inside the flight chamber. In each treatment (abscissa) an array of 12 artificial flowers of the same morph was present. Different letters denote statistically significant differences (see text).

 

Figure 6
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  		Fig. 6. Features of flower handling are illustrated in this photo of Manduca sexta feeding from a flower of Mirabilis multiflora (Nyctaginaceae). Note the extended proboscis (grey arrow), the distance of the moth's body from the flower, and the radial grooves in the flower's perianth (white arrows). Scale bar, 1 cm. Photo© Robert A. Raguso.

 




© The Company of Biologists Ltd 2006