The effect of floral symmetry and orientation on the consistency of pollinator's entry angle

Abstract

Since the publication of Sprengels (1793) observations, it has been considered that flowers with zygomorphic (or bilaterally symmetrical) corollas evolved to restrict the movement of pollinators into the flower by limiting the pollinators direction of approach. However, little empirical support has been accumulated so far, except Culbert and Forrest (2016) who found that zygomorphy reduced variance in pollinators flower entry angle. Our aim was to build on this work and observe whether floral symmetry or orientation had an effect on pollinator entry angle in a laboratory experiment using bumble bees, Bombus ignitus. Using nine different combinations of artificial flowers created from three symmetry types (radial, bilateral and disymmetrical) and three orientation types (upward, horizontal and downward), we tested the effects of these two floral aspects on the consistency of bees entry angle. Our results show that horizontal orientation significantly reduced the variance in entry angle, while symmetry had little effect. We also found no significant interactions between angle and symmetry in their effect on entry angle. Thus, our results suggest that horizontal orientation forces the bees to orient themselves relative to gravity rather than the corolla and stabilizes their flower entry. This stabilizing effect may have been mistaken for the effect of zygomorphic corolla as it is presented horizontally in most species. Consequently, we suggest that the evolution of horizontal orientation preceded that of zygomorphy as indicated by some authors, and that the reason behind the evolution of zygomorphy should be revisited.