Data from: Bees use the taste of pollen to determine which flowers to visit

Pollen plays a dual role as both a gametophyte and nutritional reward for pollinators. Although pollen chemistry varies across plant species, its functional significance in pollination has remained obscure, in part because little is known about how floral visitors assess it. Bees rely on pollen for protein, but whether foragers evaluate its chemistry is unclear, as it is primarily consumed by larvae. We asked whether the chemical composition of pollen influences bumblebees’ foraging behaviour. Using putatively sweet and bitter pollen blends, we found that chemical composition influenced two aspects of bee behaviour relevant to plant fitness: the amount of pollen collected and the likelihood of subsequently visiting a visually similar flower. These findings offer a new perspective on the nutritional ecology of plant-pollinator interactions, as they show that pollen’s taste may mediate its collection and transfer.

花粉兼具双重功能：既是配子体（gametophyte），同时也是为传粉者提供的营养奖赏。尽管不同植物物种的花粉化学组成存在差异，但花粉在传粉过程中的功能意义仍不明确，部分原因是学界对访花生物如何评估花粉的机制知之甚少。蜜蜂依赖花粉获取蛋白质，但采粉工蜂是否会评估花粉的化学组成仍不明确，因为花粉主要是被蜂群幼虫取食的。本研究旨在探究花粉的化学组成是否会影响熊蜂的采食行为。本研究使用预设为甜味和苦味的花粉混合物开展实验，结果发现花粉的化学组成会影响与植物适合度相关的两项蜂类行为：花粉采集量，以及后续访问视觉特征相似花朵的概率。本研究结果为植物-传粉者互作的营养生态学研究提供了全新视角：研究表明，花粉的味觉特征可能介导其被采集和传递的过程。