Abstract Plant–pollinator interactions have a fundamental influence on flower evolution. Flower color signals are frequently tuned to the visual capabilities of important pollinators such as either bees or birds, but far less is known about whether flower shape influences the choices of pollinators. We tested European honeybee Apis mellifera preferences using novel achromatic (gray-scale) images of 12 insect-pollinated and 12 bird-pollinated native Australian flowers in Germany; thus, avoiding influences of color, odor, or prior experience. Independent bees were tested with a number of parameterized images specifically designed to assess preferences for size, shape, brightness, or the number of flower-like shapes present in an image. We show that honeybees have a preference for visiting images of insect-pollinated flowers and such a preference is most-likely mediated by holistic information rather than by individual image parameters. Our results indicate angiosperms have evolved flower shapes which influence the choice behavior of important pollinators, and thus suggest spatial achromatic flower properties are an important part of visual signaling for plant–pollinator interactions.

中文翻译：

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与鸟类授粉的花形相比，蜜蜂更喜欢新颖的昆虫授粉花形

摘要 植物-传粉媒介的相互作用对花的进化有着根本性的影响。花色信号经常根据重要传粉媒介（如蜜蜂或鸟类）的视觉能力进行调整，但人们对花的形状是否会影响传粉媒介的选择知之甚少。我们使用德国 12 种昆虫授粉和 12 种鸟类授粉的澳大利亚本土花卉的新型消色差（灰度）图像测试了欧洲蜜蜂的偏好；因此，避免颜色、气味或先前经验的影响。独立蜜蜂接受了许多参数化图像的测试，这些图像专门设计用于评估图像中存在的大小、形状、亮度或花朵状形状的数量的偏好。我们表明蜜蜂偏好访问昆虫授粉的花朵图像，这种偏好很可能是由整体信息而不是单个图像参数介导的。我们的结果表明，被子植物已经进化出影响重要传粉媒介选择行为的花形，因此表明空间消色花特性是植物 - 传粉媒介相互作用视觉信号的重要组成部分。