The effect of nectar production on neighborhood size

Summary

Bumblebee foraging behavior was observed on two plant species with similar floral and inflorescence structures. One species produces nectar while the other does not. Bees, upon visiting nectar producing flowers tend to empty them of nectar and by frequently moving between close neighbors, create a patchily distributed resource base. Bees maximize their foraging efficiency in such an environment by using an area-restricted searching behavior and flying distances inversely correlated with the quality of reward received. Pollen collecting bumblebees do not create a patchy environment and maximize their foraging efficiency by more consistently moving shorter distances. Pollen collecting bumblebees are significantly more likely to revisit flowers and to visit more flowers per inflorescence than are nectar gathering bumblebees. These differences in foraging behavior increase the neighborhood size for nectar producing species and make it increasingly unlikely that random drift will be a dominant mode of evolution in populations of these species.