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Learning and the Evolution of Resources: Pollinators and Flower Morphology

  • Chapter
Insect Learning

Abstract

Learning can enable an animal to find and use its resources more efficiently (Papaj and Prokopy, 1989), but what are the consequences of learning for the evolution of the resource organism? If the resource loses fitness, selection should favor protective or escape mechanisms. If the resource benefits from use, selection should favor traits that make it easier to find and use. An examination of a classic mutualism—the flowering plants and their pollinators—reveals that these simple scenarios do not always hold: flowers advertise their presence, as one would expect, but they hide their rewards. Why?

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Authors
  1. Alcinda C. Lewis
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Center for Insect Science, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA

    Daniel R. Papaj

  2. Department of Environmental, Population and Organismic Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA

    Alcinda C. Lewis

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Lewis, A.C. (1993). Learning and the Evolution of Resources: Pollinators and Flower Morphology. In: Papaj, D.R., Lewis, A.C. (eds) Insect Learning. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2814-2_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2814-2_9

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-6216-6

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