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Research Article
Avoidance of achromatic colours by bees provides a private niche for hummingbirds
Klaus Lunau, Sarah Papiorek, Thomas Eltz, Marlies Sazima
Journal of Experimental Biology 2011 214: 1607-1612; doi: 10.1242/jeb.052688
Klaus Lunau
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  • For correspondence: lunau@uni-duesseldorf.de
Sarah Papiorek
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Thomas Eltz
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Marlies Sazima
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SUMMARY

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.

FOOTNOTES

  • ↵† Present address: Ruhr-University Bochum, Department of Biology, Animal Evolution, Ecology and Biodiversity, Universitätsstr. 150, 44780 Bochum, Germany

  • Supplementary material available online at http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/full/214/9/1607/DC1

  • This research was supported by the State of São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) as part of the Thematic Project Functional Gradient within the BIOTA/FAPESP program.

  • © 2011.
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Research Article
Avoidance of achromatic colours by bees provides a private niche for hummingbirds
Klaus Lunau, Sarah Papiorek, Thomas Eltz, Marlies Sazima
Journal of Experimental Biology 2011 214: 1607-1612; doi: 10.1242/jeb.052688
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Research Article
Avoidance of achromatic colours by bees provides a private niche for hummingbirds
Klaus Lunau, Sarah Papiorek, Thomas Eltz, Marlies Sazima
Journal of Experimental Biology 2011 214: 1607-1612; doi: 10.1242/jeb.052688

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