Plant responses induced by herbivore damage can provide fitness benefits, but can also have important costs due to altered interactions with mutualist pollinators. We examined the effects of plant responses to herbivory in a hummingbird-pollinated distylous shrub, Palicourea angustifolia. Through a series of field experiments we investigated whether damage from foliar herbivores leads to a reduction in fruit set, influences floral visitation, or alters floral traits that may influence pollinator preference or pollinator efficiency. Foliar herbivory by a generalist grasshopper led to reduced fruit set in branches that were directly damaged as well as in adjacent undamaged branches on the same plant. Furthermore, herbivory resulted in reduced floral visitation from two common hummingbird species and two bee species. An investigation into the potential mechanisms behind reduced floral visitation in induced plants showed that foliar herbivore damage resulted in shorter styles and lower nectar volumes. This reduction in style length could reduce pollen deposition between different floral morphs that is required for optimal pollination in a distylous plant. We did not detect any differences in the volatile blends released by damaged and undamaged branches, suggesting that foliar herbivore-induced changes in floral morphology and rewards, and not volatile blends, are the primary mechanism mediating changes in visitation. Our results provide novel mechanisms for how plant responses induced by foliar herbivores can lead to ecological costs.

Bees make choices about what flowers to visit among the options in the floral market. Bee specialization to visit only one plant species at a time is relevant to maintain the plant-bee mutualism. angiosperms derive a clear benefit in their sexual reproduction from the fidelity exhibited by the bees; less obvious is why the insects engage in this behavior. The phenomenon of flower constancy in bees is known from more than two millennia ago yet there is no general theory that can explain all kinds of flower constancy. In this paper I review different theories on flower constancy, providing evidence in favor and against each model, and then I discuss the possible scenario in which each behavior can have an ecological advantage. Finally, I present evidence of flower constancy exhibited by other groups of insects and vertebrate pollinators.

Learning facilitates behavioral plasticity, leading to higher success rates when foraging. However, memory is of decreasing value with changes brought about by moving to novel resource locations or activity at different times of the day. These premises suggest a foraging model with location- and time-linked memory. Thus, each problem is novel, and selection should favor a maximum likelihood approach to achieve energy maximization results. Alternatively, information is potentially always applicable. This premise suggests a different foraging model, one where initial decisions should be based on previous learning regardless of the foraging site or time. Under this second model, no problem is considered novel, and selection should favor a Bayesian or pseudo-Bayesian approach to achieve energy maximization results. We tested these two models by offering honey bees a learning situation at one location in the morning, where nectar rewards differed between flower colors, and examined their behavior at a second location in the afternoon where rewards did not differ between flower colors. Both blue-yellow and blue-white dimorphic flower patches were used. Information learned in the morning was clearly used in the afternoon at a new foraging site. Memory was not location-time restricted in terms of use when visiting either flower color dimorphism.

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Speciation by hybridization has long been recognized among plants and includes both homoploid and allopolyploid speciation. The numbers of presumed hybrid species averages close to 11% and tends to be concentrated in a subset of angiosperm families. Recent advances in molecular methods have verified species of hybrid origin that had been presumed on the basis of morphology and have identified species that were not initially considered hybrids. Identifying species of hybrid origin is often a challenge and typically based on intermediate morphology, or discrepancies between molecular datasets. Discrepancies between data partitions may result from several factors including poor support, incomplete lineage sorting, or hybridization. A phylogenetic analysis of species in Columnea (Gesneriaceae) indicated significant incongruencies between the cpDNA and nrDNA datasets. Tests that examined whether one or both of the datasets had the phylogenetic signal to reject the topology of the alternate dataset (Shimodaira and Hasegawa [SH] and approximately unbiased [AU] tests) indicated significant differences between the topologies. Splitstree analyses also showed that there was support for the placement of the discrepant taxa in both datasets and that the combined data placed the putative hybrid species in an intermediate position between the two datasets. The genealogical sorting index (GSI) implied that coalescence in nrDNA had occurred in all species where more than a single individual had been sampled, but the GSI value was lower for the cpDNA of most of the putative hybrids, implying that these regions have not yet coalesced in these lineages despite being haploid. The JML test that evaluates simulated species pairwise distances against observed distances also implies that observed nrDNA data generate shorter distances than simulated data, implying hybridization. It is most likely that C. gigantifolia, C. rubriacuta, and C. sp. nov. represent a lineage from a hybrid ancestor, but C. moorei may be a more recent hybrid and may still be undergoing hybridization with sympatric species.