Efficient foragers avoid returning to food sources that they had previously depleted. Bombus terrestris bumblebees use a counting-like strategy to leave Alcea setosa flowers just after visiting all of their five nectaries. We tested whether a similar strategy is employed by solitary Eucera sp....

The ability of invertebrates to perform complex cognitive tasks is widely debated. Bees utilize the number of landmarks en-route to their destination as cues for navigation, but their use of numerical information in other contexts has not been studied. Numerical regularity in the spatial...

Insect herbivores often use chemical signals obtained from their food plants to deter enemies and/or attract sexual partners. Do plant-based visual signals act similarly, i.e., repel consumers' enemies and appeal to potential mates? We explored this question using the pollen-feeding beetle...

Foraging bees spend less time flying between flowers of the same species than when flying between individuals of different species. This time saving has been suggested as a possible advantage of flower-constant foraging. We hypothesized that the time required to switch flower type increases if...

Bracts are nonfloral showy structures associated with inflorescences. They are generally hypothesized to enhance plant reproductive success by attracting pollinating insects. We investigated whether flag-like bracts at the top of inflorescences reliably signal of floral food reward for...

Nectar yields (standing crops) in flowers within an individual plant are often highly variable. This variability may be a by-product of the foraging activity of insect pollinators. Alternatively, plants may be selected to produce highly variable rewards to reduce consecutive visitation by...

The vertical inflorescences of the Mediterranean annual Salvia viridis carry many small, colorful flowers, and are frequently terminated by a conspicuous tuft of colorful leaves ("flags") that attracts insect pollinators. Insects may use the flags as indicators of the food reward in the...

Large red bowl-shaped flowers characterize the Mediterranean “poppy guild” plants, and were suggested to reflect convergence for beetle pollination. However, the earliest-blooming species in this guild, Anemone coronaria (L.), starts flowering about a month before beetle emergence. Early...

The vertical inflorescences of several plant species are terminated by colorful bracts, which attract insect pollinators. The bracts contrast in color with the leaves below them, and are oriented perpendicular to the flowers on the inflorescence. We conducted laboratory experiments to determine...