Flower color preferences of insects and livestock: effects onGentiana luteareproductive success

Abstract

Angiosperms diversification was primarily driven by pollinator agents, but non-pollinator agents also promoted floral evolution. Gentiana lutea shows pollinator driven flower color variation in NW Spain. We test whether insect herbivores and livestock, which frequently feed in G.lutea, play a role in G. lutea flower color variation, by answering the following questions: (i) Do insect herbivores and grazing livestock show flower color preferences when feeding on G. lutea? (ii) Do mutualists (pollinators) and antagonists (seed predators, insect herbivores and livestock) jointly affect G. lutea reproductive success? Insect herbivores fed more often on yellow flowering individuals but they did not affect seed production, whereas livestock affected seed production but did not show clear color preferences. Our data indicate that flower color variation of G. lutea is not affected by insect herbivores or grazing livestock.

Flower Strips as an Ecological Tool to Strengthen the Environmental Balance of Fields: Case Study of a National Park Zone in Western Poland

“…The color plays a role as a visual attractant for insects [50]. Krzy żanowski [57] reports that dark green varieties with a high content of chlorophyll a and b and a low level of yellow-orange pigments (flavonols, carotenes, and xanthophylls) are much less accepted by winged forms of grain aphids, and Sobral et al [58] found that herbivorous insects preferred to colonize plants with yellow flowers. In a study by Csanády et al [59], the most preferred colors for hymenopterans were yellow, white, blue, purple, and the least commonly selected color was red; however, these preferences may change depending on the growing season and location.…”