Neonicotinoids are widely used systemic insecticides which, when applied to flowering crops, are translocated to the nectar and pollen where they may impact upon pollinators. Given global concerns over pollinator declines, this potential impact has recently received much attention. Field exposure of pollinators to neonicotinoids depends on the concentrations present in flowering crops and the d...

Floral colour change is visual signals for pollinators to avoid old flowers and increase pollination efficiency. Quisqualis indica flowers change colour from white to pink to red may be associated with a shift from moth to butterfly pollination. To test this hypothesis, we investigated Q. indica populations in Southwest China. Flowers secreted nectar continuously from the evening of anthesis un...

Innovative floral organs are widely distributed taxonomically in angiosperms, and some of them are conspicuous and curious in morphology. Floral organs have long been supposed to play a crucial role in fertilization by pollinators. However, why innovative organs occur, how they are adapted for pollinators and what sexual roles they play are still puzzling. Here we focused on a wild ginger (Zing...

Hybridization and insect pollination are widely believed to increase rates of plant diversification. The extreme diversity of figs (Ficus) and their obligate pollinators, fig wasps (Agaonidae), provides an opportunity to examine the possible role of pollinator-mediated hybridization in plant diversification. Increasing evidence suggests that pollinator sharing and hybridization occurs among fig...

Floral scents are among the key signals used by pollinators to navigate to specific flowers. Thus, evolutionary changes in scents should have strong impacts on plant diversification, although scent-mediated plant speciation through pollinator shifts has rarely been demonstrated, despite being likely. To examine whether and how scent-mediated plant speciation may have occurred, we investigated t...

Floral nectar is considered the most important reward animal-pollinated plants offer to attract pollinators. Here we explore whether honeybees, which act as pollinators, affect the composition of bacterial communities in the nectar. Nectar and honeybees were sampled from two plant species: Amygdalus communis and Citrus paradisi. To prevent the contact of nectar with pollinators, C. paradisi flo...

All animal-pollinated plants must solve the problem of attracting pollinators while remaining inconspicuous to herbivores, a dilemma exacerbated when voracious larval-stage herbivores mature into important pollinators for a plant [1]. Herbivory is known to alter pollination rates, by altering flower number [2], size [3, 4], nectar production [5], seasonal timing of flowering [6], or pollinator ...

Pollination studies often use visitation frequency of potential pollinators as an indicator of their importance, but this is only one component and may not reflect actual pollen transfer rates. In this study, we determine the most effective pollinator group of Angadenia berteroi, a tropical perennial subshrub with large yellow flowers that set few fruits. We determined visitation frequency and ...

Floral traits have largely been attributed to phenotypic selection in plant-pollinator interactions. However, the strength of this link has rarely been ascertained with real pollinators. We conducted pollinator observations and estimated selection through female fitness on flowering phenology and floral traits between two Primula secundiflora populations. We quantified pollinator-mediated selec...

Pollination syndromes are defined as suites of floral traits evolved in response to selection imposed by a particular group of pollinators (e.g., butterflies, hummingbirds, bats). Although numerous studies demonstrated their occurrence in plants pollinated by radically different pollinators, it is less known whether it is possible to identify them within species pollinated by one functional pol...