Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Chance and adaptation in the evolution of island bumblebee behaviour

  • Review
  • Special Feature: Current topics in pollination ecology
  • Published:
Population Ecology

Abstract

We used a population biological approach to assist our understanding of the evolution of behaviour, with island bumblebees as our model system. The widespread European species Bombus terrestris occurs on all major Mediterranean, and some Atlantic islands. Bees from different populations differ in a variety of behavioural traits, including floral colour preferences, flower detection, and learning behaviour. We attempted to correlate these behavioural differences with each population’s environment, but could not find straightforward adaptive explanations. We also performed reciprocal transplant studies to compare nectar foraging performance of bees from three different populations, but found that non-native bees consistently outcompeted native bees. Thus, we consider genetic drift, exaptation, and pleiotropy as possible alternative explanations to a strictly adaptive explanation for between population behavioural differences in bumblebees.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2a–e
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7a–c
Fig. 8
Fig. 9

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Adkison MD (1995) Population differentiation in Pacific salmon: local adaptation, genetic drift, or the environment. Can J Fish Aquat Sci 52:2762–2777

    Google Scholar 

  • Banschbach VS (1994) Colour association influences honey bee choice between sucrose concentrations. J Comp Physiol A 175:107–114

    Google Scholar 

  • Barton NH (1984) Genetic revolutions, founder effects and speciation. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 15:133–164

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barton NH (1998) Natural selection and random genetic drift as causes of evolution on islands. In: Grant PR (ed) Evolution on islands. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 102–123

  • Briscoe AD, Chittka L (2001) The evolution of color vision in insects. Annu Rev Entomol 46:471–510

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brown JH, Lomolino MV (1998) Biogeography. Sinauer, Sunderland

  • Chittka L, Reinhold H (1999) Towards an individual-based approach to insect learning. In: Elsner N, Eysel U (eds) Proceedings of the 27th Göttingen neurobiology conference. Thieme, Berlin, p 257

  • Chittka L, Thomson JD (1997) Sensori-motor learning and its relevance for task specialization in bumble bees. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 41:385–398

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chittka L, Wells H (2004) Color vision in bees: mechanisms, ecology and evolution. In: Prete F (ed) How simple nervous systems create complex perceptual worlds. MIT, Boston, pp 165–191

  • Chittka L, Thomson JD, Waser NM (1999) Flower constancy, insect psychology, and plant evolution. Naturwissenschaften 86:361–377

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chittka L, Spaethe J, Schmidt A, Hickelsberger A (2001) Adaptation, constraint, and chance in the evolution of flower color and pollinator color vision. In: Chittka L, Thomson JD (eds) Cognitive ecology of pollination. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 106–126

  • Dafni A, Bernhardt P, Shmida A, Ivri Y, Greenbaum S, O’Toole C, Losito L (1990) Red bowl-shaped flowers: convergence for beetle pollination in the Mediterranean region. Isr J Bot 39:81–92

    Google Scholar 

  • DeJonghe R (1986) Crossing experiments with Bombus terrestris terrestris (Linnaeus 1758) and Bombus terrestris xanthopus (Kriechbaumer 1870) and some notes on diapause and nosemose (Nosema) (Hymenoptera, Apoidea). Phegea 14:19–23

    Google Scholar 

  • Dornhaus A, Chittka L (2004) Why do honeybees dance. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 55:395–401

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dukas R, Morse DH (2003) Crab spiders affect flower visitation by bees. Oikos 101:157–163

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Estoup A, Solignac M, Cornuet J-M, Goudet J, Scholl A (1996) Genetic differentiation of continental and island populations of Bombus terrestris(Hymenoptera: Apidae) in Europe. Mol Ecol 5:19–31

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ford EB (1955) Rapid evolution and the conditions which make it possible. Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol 20:230–238

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Foster JB (1964) The evolution of mammals on islands. Nature 202:234–235

    Google Scholar 

  • Giurfa M, Núñez J, Chittka L, Menzel R (1995) Colour preferences of flower-naive honeybees. J Comp Physiol A 177:247–259

    Google Scholar 

  • Goulson D, Peat J, Stout JC, Tucker J, Darwill B, Derwent LC, Hughes WOH (2002) Can alloethism in workers of the bumblebee, Bombus terrestris, be explained in terms of foraging efficiency? Anim Behav 64:123–130

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gumbert A, Kunze J, Chittka L (1999) Floral colour diversity in plant communities, bee colour space and a null model. Proc R Soc London B 266:1711–1716

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heinrich B (1979) Bumblebee economics. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

  • Heinrich B, Mudge PR, Deringis PG (1977) Laboratory analysis of flower constancy in foraging bumblebees: Bombus ternarius and B. terricola. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2:247–265

    Google Scholar 

  • Jander U, Jander R (2002) Allometry and resolution of bee eyes (Apoidea). Arthropod Struct Dev 30:179–193

    Google Scholar 

  • Menzel R, Shmida A (1993) The ecology of flower colours and the natural colour vision of insect pollinators: the Israeli flora as a study case. Biol Rev 68:81–120

    Google Scholar 

  • Olesen JM (1985) The Macaronesian bird-flower elements and its relation to bird and bee opportunists. Bot J Linn Soc 91:395–414

    Google Scholar 

  • Palmer M (2002) Testing the ’Island Rule’ for a tenebrionid beetle (Coleoptera Tenebrionidae). J Ecol 223:103–107

    Google Scholar 

  • Plowright RC, Owen RE (1980) The evolutionary significance of bumble bee color patterns: a mimetic interpretation. Evolution 34:622–637

    Google Scholar 

  • Schikora J (2001) Blütenfarben auf Mittelmeerinseln und die Rolle von genetischer Drift bei den Farbpräferenzen von Hummeln: “Zoologie II.” Julius-Maximilians-Universität, Würzburg

  • Schikora J, Spaethe J, Brockman A, Chittka L (2002) Colour vision and colour preference in Bombus terrestris: a population biological approach. Zoology 105:28

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith C, Barber I, Wooton RJ, Chittka L (2004) A receiver bias in the origin of threespine stickleback mate choice. Proc R Soc London B 271:949–955

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spaethe J, Chittka L (2003) Interindividual variation of eye optics and single object resolution in bumblebees. J Exp Biol 206:3447–3453

    Google Scholar 

  • Spaethe J, Weidenmüller A (2002) Size variation and foraging rate in bumblebees (Bombus terrestris). Insect Soc 49:142–146

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spaethe J, Tautz J, Chittka L (2001) Visual constraints in foraging bumblebees: flower size and color affect search time and flight behavior. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 98:3898–3903

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Stanton ML, Galen C (1997) Life on the edge: adaptation versus environmentally mediated gene flow in the snow buttercup, Ranunculus adoneus. Am Nat 150:143–178

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stüber K (2002) Sammel- und Flugverhalten bei Hummeln: ein Vergleich zwischen Populationen. University of Würzburg, Würzburg

  • Vogel S, Westerkamp C, Thiel B, Gessner K (1984) Ornithophilie auf den Canarischen Inseln. Plant Syst Evol 146:225–248

    Google Scholar 

  • Widmer A, Schmid-Hempel P, Estoup A, Scholl A (1998) Population genetic structure and colonization history of Bombus terrestris s.I. (Hymenoptera: Apidae) from the Canary Islands and Madeira. Heredity 81:563–572

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The research was supported by grants Ch147/3-1 from the DFG, and NER/A/S/2003/00469 from NERC. Part of this work was performed under the auspices of the University of Würzburg, Germany. We wish to thank Parul Desai, Adrienne Gerber-Kurz, Anja Hickelsberger, Margaret Lancaster, Pritesh Patel, Tonia Schamberger, Juliette Schikora, Ronnie Singh, Johannes Spaethe and Kristina Stüber for discussions and help with the experiments, and R.B. Lotto for Fig. 1.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biological Sciences, Queen Mary College, University of London, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS, UK

    Lars Chittka, Thomas C. Ings & Nigel E. Raine

Authors
  1. Lars Chittka
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Thomas C. Ings
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Nigel E. Raine
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lars Chittka.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Chittka, L., Ings, T.C. & Raine, N.E. Chance and adaptation in the evolution of island bumblebee behaviour. Popul Ecol 46, 243–251 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10144-004-0180-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10144-004-0180-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation