Visitation sequence data from: Alternative flowers affect model and mimic flower discrimination performance of bumble bees

Some animal-pollinated flowers produce no rewards but attract pollinators by imitating rewarding flowers. Termed Batesian floral mimicry, this phenomenon has generally been understood in terms of a common system of the organisms performing one of three roles as model flowers, mimic flowers, or signal receivers (a Batesian mimicry trinity). However, organisms other than those of the mimicry trinity may play important roles in the relationships of the trinity members. This study examined the effect of alternative flowers that are dissimilar to either model or mimic flowers on bumble bee discrimination between model and mimic flowers. To this end, we observed bumble bees, Bombus ignitus (Smith), foraging in mixed arrays of artificial flowers mirroring either model, mimic, or alternative flowers. Bumble bees’ ability to discriminate mimic from model flowers was impacted by the presence of alternative flowers; however, the effect was dependent on the similarity between the model and ...部分依赖动物传粉的花朵并不会为传粉者提供任何报酬，而是通过模仿具有报酬的花朵来吸引传粉者。这种现象被称为贝茨氏花拟态（Batesian floral mimicry），过往研究通常将其纳入一套由三类生物分别承担模式花、拟态花或信号接收者角色的经典系统中，即贝茨拟态三元组。然而，并非仅该拟态三元组内的生物才会在三元组成员的相互关系中发挥重要作用。 本研究旨在探究既区别于模式花也不同于拟态花的替代花，对熊蜂区分模式花与拟态花能力的影响。为此，我们以火红熊蜂（Bombus ignitus Smith）为实验对象，观察其在分别模拟模式花、拟态花或替代花的人工花混合阵列中的觅食行为。 熊蜂区分拟态花与模式花的能力会受到替代花存在的影响，但该影响效果取决于模式花与……之间的相似性。