Pattern discrimination in a hawkmoth: innate preferences, learning performance and ecology.
نویسنده
چکیده
Spatial patterns are important cues for flower detection and recognition by nectar-feeding insects. Pattern vision has been studied in much detail in bees and flies but rarely in butterflies and moths. In this paper, I present a first proof of pattern-learning abilities in a moth, and discuss reasons for the limitations to their pattern learning. The diurnal hawkmoth Macroglossum stellatarum spontaneously prefers patterned to uniformly coloured stimuli but can be trained to choose the uniform stimulus. By contrast, experience does not override the innate preferences for radial over tangential patterns, and for tangential over striped patterns. These results do not reflect bad visual discrimination but rather a lack of learning ability and motivation to abolish innate preferences. I propose that radial and tangential flower patterns are good predictors of nectar reward, a condition under which learning is unlikely to evolve. These patterns serve not only as cues for flower detection but also as guides to the reward. Hovering pollinators strongly depend on these guides and should therefore: (i). have rigid pattern preferences; and (ii). not be motivated to abolish these preferences as easily as their innate preferences for colours.
منابع مشابه
Colour learning in the hawkmoth Macroglossum stellatarum
Newly eclosed specimens of the day-active hawkmoth Macroglossum stellatarum were trained to artificial flowers in dual-colour choice situations. Learning curves were obtained from learning and reversed-learning experiments. Initially, learning behaviour was influenced by innate colour preferences. In comparison with other lepidopterans, Macroglossum stellatarum learns well. When trained in a du...
متن کاملInnate preferences for flower features in the hawkmoth Macroglossum stellatarum
The diurnal hawkmoth Macroglossum stellatarum is known to feed from a variety of flower species of almost all colours, forms and sizes. A newly eclosed imago, however, has to find its first flower by means of an innate flower template. This study investigates which visual flower features are represented in this template and their relative importance. Newly eclosed imagines were tested for their...
متن کاملLearning Style Preferences in Male and Female Professional Translators
This study investigated learning style preferences among professional translators. The purposes of the study were to (a) find the prevailing learning style among the Iranian professional translators; (b) reveal any significant difference in the translators’ learning style preferences in terms of gender; and (c) find any significant difference between individual learning style and translation co...
متن کاملPerceptual Learning Style Preferences and Computer-Assisted Writing Achievement within the Activity Theory Framework
Learning styles are considered among the significant factors that aid instructors in deciding how well their students learn a second or foreign language (Oxford, 2003). Although this issue has been accepted broadly in educational psychology,further research is required to examine the relationship between learning styles and language learning skills. Thus, the present study was carried out to in...
متن کاملDiscrimination Training with Multimodal Stimuli Changes Activity in the Mushroom Body of the Hawkmoth Manduca sexta
BACKGROUND The mushroom bodies of the insect brain play an important role in olfactory processing, associative learning and memory. The mushroom bodies show odor-specific spatial patterns of activity and are also influenced by visual stimuli. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Functional imaging was used to investigate changes in the in vivo responses of the mushroom body of the hawkmoth Manduca ...
متن کاملذخیره در منابع من
با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید
عنوان ژورنال:
- Proceedings. Biological sciences
دوره 269 1509 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2002