Abstract
Sympatric populations ofPedicularis oederi, P. cystopteridifolia, andP. groenlandicaon the Beartooth Plateau (Montana) were obligately dependent onBombuspollinators. Their corolla colors were mutually distinct to insect vision, but their nectars had identical sugar components. Analysis of corbicular pollen loads of pollinating insects indicated a high degree of polylecty. Queen/worker ratios of pollinators on plant species corresponded to the parallel phenological sequences of plant blooming and insect caste development. The total number of individual pollinators of eachBombusspecies on all plants was directly related to the number of plant species it pollinated, but a comparable relationship between the number of pollinators on a plant species to the number ofBombusspecies pollinating it was not found. Morphological and behavioral correspondence of floral mechanisms and pollinators form an integral part of the general pattern of coadaptive evolution of the floral ecology ofPedicularisin North America known from previous studies. Reproductive isolation betweenPedicularisspecies in this study is attributed to internal barriers. Wide overlaps of blooming seasons, proboscis lengths of bumblebee species and castes, and pollinator species onPedicularisspecies suggest resource sharing, rather than resource partitioning or competition for resources among plant and insect species and individuals.
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