Floral Cues and Flower Handling Tactics Affect Switching Decisions by Nectar-Foraging Bumble Bees
Nectar foraging bees change their use of floral resources as plant species appear in the environment and disappear over their lifetimes. The new flowers used may involve different cues and different nectar extraction tactics. Although bumble bees can adapt to changes in floral cues and required tactics, little is known about whether bees prioritize switching tactics or floral cues when deciding which plant species to switch to. In a laboratory assay, we forced Bombus impatiens (common eastern bumble bee) workers either to switch the handling tactic they were using or to continue using the tactic but to switch the colour of artificial flowers foraged on. We examined whether bees’ tendency to change their tactics was influenced by how similar in colour novel flowers were to familiar ones. We conducted a 2 by 2 factorial experiment using artificial flowers, manipulating the handling tactic that bees were initially trained (legitimate visitation or nectar robbing) and the similarity betwee