Dataset for: Intraspecific size shifts in generalist bumblebees and flowers lead to low functional consequences

Body size is a trait that can affect plant-pollinator interaction
efficiency and plant reproductive success. We explored the impact of
intraspecific size shifts on the interactions between pollinators and
flowering plants under controlled conditions. We considered two
development conditions leading to the production of large and small
individual flowers of Borago officinalis and Echium plantagineum. We also
used the natural variability of worker size within bumblebee colonies to
isolate small and large workers. We performed a fully crossed experiment
with the two flower sizes of each plant species, and the two sizes of
bumblebee workers. Our results show that the size of both partners did not
affect bee foraging behavior in most of the evaluated parameters, and both
bee sizes were equally efficient in depositing pollen. Significant
differences were found only in the pollen deposition across the life of a
flower in small flowers of B. officinalis, with the greatest quantity of
pollen deposited by small bees. We did not find a relationship between
pollinator size and plant fitness. Our results suggest that generalist
plant-pollinator interactions may be resilient to future potential
mismatches in the size of the partners, but remain to be tested if they
are still resilient under the new environmental conditions resulting from
global changes.