Summary
The morphologically complex flowers of Delphinium nelsonii, D. barbeyi, and Ipomopsis aggregata are visited by a wide variety of animals. Visitors to each species range from small insects, such as worker bumblebees and solitary bees, to hummingbirds, and thus span roughly an order of magnitude in body mass and metabolic rate while flying; they also differ in type of food collected and in their efficacy as pollinators. Despite these differences, all the visitors to a given plant species fly similar, short distances between successively visited flowers and plants. There are no significant relationships between mean flight distance and metabolic rate or body mass among the visitors to any plant species. Thus there is no evidence that flight characteristics depend on anything as straightforward as whether flower visitors have high or low energetic requirements.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Baker HG, Hurd PD, Jr (1968) Intrafloral ecology. Ann Rev Entomol 13:385–414
Brown JH, Calder WA, Kodric-Brown A (1978) Correlates and consequences of body size in nectar-feeding birds. Am Zool 18:687–700
Faegri K, Pijl L van der (1971) The principles of pollination ecology. Second edition. Pergamon-Press, New York
Heinrich B, Raven PH (1972) Energetics and pollination ecology. Science 176:597–602
Heinrich B (1975) Energetics of pollination. Ann Rev Ecol Syst 6:139–170
Inouye DW (1976) Resource partitioning and community structure: A study of bumblebees in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Doctoral dissertation, Univ of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Janzen DH (1971) Euglossine bees as long-distance pollinators of tropical trees. Science 171:203–205
Krebs JR (1978) Optimal foraging: Decision rules for predators. In: Krebs JR and Davies NB (eds) Behavioral ecology, an evolutionary approach, Sinauer, Sunderland, Massachusetts
Lertzman KP, Gass CL (1982) Alternative models of pollen transfer. In: Jones CE and Little RJ (eds) Handbook of experimental pollination ecology, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, in press
Levin DA, Kerster HW, Niedzlek M (1971) Pollinator flight directionality and its effect on pollen flow. Evolution 25:113–118
Levin DA, Kerster HW (1974) Gene flow in seed plants. Evol Biol 7:139–220
Levin DA (1979) The nature of plant species. Science 204:381–384
Pijl L van der (1960) Ecological aspects of flower evolution. I. Zoophilous flower classes. Evolution 15:44–59
Price MV, Waser NM (1979) Pollen dispersal and optimal outcrossing in Delphinium nelsonii. Nature 277:294–296
Pyke GH, Pulliam HR, Charnov EL (1977) Optimal foraging: A selective review of theory and tests. Q Rev Biol 52:137–154
Pyke GH (1978) Optimal foraging: Movement patterns of bumblebees between inflorescences. Theor Popul Biol 13:72–98
Pyke GH (1979) Optimal foraging in bumblebees: Rule of movement between flowers within inflorescences. Anim Behav 27:1167–1181
Pyke GH (1980) Optimal foraging in nectar-feeding animals and coevolution with their plants. In: Kamil AC and Sargent TD (eds) Foraging behavior: Ecological, ethological, and psychological approaches, Garland, New York
Pyke GH (1981) optimal foraging in hummingbirds: Rule of movement between inflorescences. Anim Behav 29:889–896
Schaal BA (1978) Density dependent foraging on Liatris pycnostachya. Evolution 32:452–454
Schaal BA (1980) Measurement of gene flow in Lupinus texensis. Nature 284:450–451
Schmitt J (1980) Pollinator foraging behavior and gene dispersal in Senecio (Compositae). Evolution 34:934–943
Stiles FG (1978) Ecological and evolutionary implications of bird pollination. Am Zool 18:715–727
Thomson JD, Plowright RC (1980) Pollen carryover, nectar rewards, and pollinator behavior with special reference to Diervilla lonicera. Oecologia (Berlin) 46:68–74
Turner ME, Stephans JC, Anderson WW (1981) Homozygosity and patch structure in plant populations as a result of nearest neighbor pollination. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA, 70:203–207
Waddington KD (1979) Flight patterns of three species of sweat bees (Halictidae) foraging at Convolvulus arvensis. J Kansas Ent Soc 52:751–758
Waddington KD (1980) Flight patterns of foraging bees relative to density of artifical flowers and distribution of nectar. Oecologia (Berlin) 44:199–204
Waddington KD (1981) Factors influencing pollen flow in bumblebee-pollinated Delphinium virescens. Oikos 37:153–159
Waser NM (1978) Competition for hummingbird pollination and sequential flowering in two Colorado wildflowers. Ecology 59:934–944
Waser NM, Real LA (1979) Effective mutualism between sequentially flowering plant species. Nature 281:670–672
Waser NM, Price MV (1981) Pollinator choice and stabilizing selection for flower color in Delphinium nelsonii. Evolution 35:376–390
Waser NM, Price MV (1982a) Optimal and actual outcrossing in plants, and the nature of plant-pollinator interaction. In: Jones CE and Little RJ (eds) Handbook of experimental pollination ecology, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, in press
Waser NM, Price MV (1982b) A comparison of pollen and fluorescent dye carryover by natural pollinators of Ipomopsis aggregata (Polemoniaceae). Ecology 63:1168–1172
Wright S (1969) Evolution and the genetics of populations. Vol 2: The theory of gene frequencies. Univ Chicago Press, Chicago
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Waser, N.M. A comparison of distances flown by different visitors to flowers of the same species. Oecologia 55, 251–257 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00384496
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00384496