Rewardless plants use various strategies to attract pollinators. Generalized food-deceptive species exploit the nonspecific food-seeking responses of their pollinators. Because past experiences are important for establishing the food-seeking behaviors of insects, previous flower visits by pollinators should play crucial roles in rewardless plants. In this study, we investigated previous experiences of insects that visited the rewardless orchid Bletilla striata based on pollen attached to their bodies to clarify whether experience of visiting flowers with similar colors as rewardless flowers is necessary. Contrary to the expectation, less than half of the flower visitors carried pollen of flowers with similar colors as B. striata, implying that past experience is not essential. Furthermore, we investigated the effects of learning based on the association between the flower position and fruit set assuming that the fruit set would decrease with the progression of the flowering season. A significant association was found at only one of the three study sites. Among flower visitors, male long-horned bees (Eucera spurcatipes) and honeybees (Apis mellifera) primarily carried B. striata pollinia. We hypothesize that B. striata uses generalized food deception to attract honeybees and rendezvous attraction to attract mate-searching male long-horned bees and that this mixed strategy invalidates the associations assumed in generalized food deception.

中文翻译：

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白芨花是如何吸引传粉者实现授粉的？

无偿植物使用各种策略来吸引传粉者。普遍的食物欺骗物种利用其传粉者的非特异性觅食反应。由于过去的经验对于建立昆虫的觅食行为很重要，传粉媒介以前的访花应该在无回报植物中发挥关键作用。在这项研究中，我们调查了昆虫之前基于附着在其身体上的花粉访问无偿兰花白芨的经历，以阐明是否需要访问与无偿花相似颜色的花朵的经历。出乎意料的是，只有不到一半的观花者携带了与 B. striata 颜色相似的花粉，这意味着过去的经验并不重要。此外，我们研究了基于花位和坐果之间关联的学习效果，假设坐果会随着开花季节的进展而减少。仅在三个研究地点之一发现了显着关联。在赏花者中，雄性长角蜜蜂（Eucera spcatipes）和蜜蜂（Apis mellifera）主要携带 B. striata pollinia。我们假设 B. striata 使用广义食物欺骗来吸引蜜蜂和会合吸引来吸引寻找配偶的雄性长角蜜蜂，并且这种混合策略使广义食物欺骗中假设的关联无效。仅在三个研究地点之一发现了显着关联。在赏花者中，雄性长角蜜蜂（Eucera spcatipes）和蜜蜂（Apis mellifera）主要携带 B. striata pollinia。我们假设 B. striata 使用广义食物欺骗来吸引蜜蜂和会合吸引来吸引寻找配偶的雄性长角蜜蜂，并且这种混合策略使广义食物欺骗中假设的关联无效。仅在三个研究地点之一发现了显着关联。在赏花者中，雄性长角蜜蜂（Eucera spcatipes）和蜜蜂（Apis mellifera）主要携带 B. striata pollinia。我们假设 B. striata 使用广义食物欺骗来吸引蜜蜂和会合吸引来吸引寻找配偶的雄性长角蜜蜂，并且这种混合策略使广义食物欺骗中假设的关联无效。