Abstract
Pollination syndromes evolved under the reciprocal selection of pollinators and plants (coevolution). Here, the two main methods are reviewed which are applied to prove such selection. (i) The indirect method is a cross-lineage approach using phylogenetical trees to understand the phylogeny. Thus, features of single origin can be distinguished from those with multiple origins. Nearly all pollination modes originate in multiple evolutionary ways. (ii) The most frequent pollinators cause the strongest selection because they are responsible for the plant’s most successful reproduction. The European sexually deceptive orchid genus Ophrys provides an example of a more direct way to prove selection because the attraction of a pollinator is species specific. Most members of the genus have remarkably variable flowers. The variability of the signals given off by the flowers enables the deceived pollinator males to learn individual flower patterns. They thus avoid already visited Ophrys flowers, interpreting them as females rejecting them. As the males will not return to these individually recognizable flowers, the pollinators´ learning behavior causes cross-pollination and prevents the orchid’s self-pollination.
Highlights
Most advances in pollination biology have resulted from interdisciplinary research combining ecological and evolutionary perspectives
To exclude the possibility that males mark with a species-specific or even an individual odorant, we presented them plants with all flowers sliced lengthwise in half
According to the phylogenetical analyses of many of the pollination modes, most of them originate in multiple evolutionary ways
Summary
Most advances in pollination biology have resulted from interdisciplinary research combining ecological and evolutionary perspectives. In still another experiment, the plants tested in one area of male pollinator activity were brought to a nearby second swarm area with different males of the same species and naive regarding Ophrys flowers. The plants tested in one area of male pollinator activity were brought to a nearby second swarm area with different males of the same species and naive regarding Ophrys flowers Their behavior was essentially the same as that shown in the previous experiment. We know that the male bees are able to distinguish flowers of different plant specimens, but in these experiments both types of signals (odorants and visual signals) had been simultaneously presented. The Ophrys type of individual variation in olfactory and visual signals can best be explained in relation to an optimization of the rate of pollination, since differences in landing numbers affect the orchid’s reproductive success. The female bees halt production of the sexual attractant or even begin to produce an anti-aphrodisiac (Schiestl and Ayasse 2000), the Ophrys flowers, too, may respond in a similar fashion
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