Cognitive Ecology of Pollination: Animal Behaviour and Floral Evolution

by Lars Chittka, James D. Thomson

Overview

Important breakthroughs have recently been made in our understanding of the cognitive and sensory abilities of pollinators, such as how pollinators perceive, memorize, and react to floral signals and rewards; how they work flowers, move among inflorescences, and transport pollen. These new findings have obvious implications for the evolution of floral display and diversity, but most existing publications are scattered across a wide range of journals in very different research traditions. This book brings together outstanding scholars from many different fields of pollination biology, integrating the work of neuroethologists and evolutionary ecologists to present a multidisciplinary approach.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521018401
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	08/22/2005
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	360
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.79(d)

Table of Contents

Preface; 1. The effect of variation among floral traits on the flower constancy of pollinators Robert J. Gegear and Terence M. Laverty; 2. Behavioural and neural mechanisms of learning and memory as determinants of flower constancy Randolf Menzel; 3. Subjective evaluation and choice-behaviour by nectar and pollen collecting bees Keith D. Waddington; 4. Honeybee vision and floral displays: from detection to close-up recognition Martin Giurfa and Miriam Lehrer; 5. Floral scent, olfaction and scent-driven foraging behaviour Robert A. Raguso; 6. Adaptation, constraint and chance in the evolution of flower color and pollinator color vision Lars Chittka, Johannes Spaethe, Annette Schmidt and Anja Hickelsberger; 7. Foraging and spatial learning in hummingbirds Sue Healy and T. Andrew Hurly; 8. Bats as pollinators: foraging energetics and floral adaptations York Winter and Otto v. Helversen; 9. Vision and learning in some neglected pollinators: beetles, flies, moths and butterflies Martha Weiss; 10. Pollinator preference, frequency-dependence and floral evolution Ann Smithson; 13. Pollinator-mediated assortative mating: causes and consequences Krinstina N. Jones; 14. Behavioural responses of pollinators to variation in floral display size and their influences on the evolution of floral traits Kazuharu Ohashi and Tetsukazu Yahara; 15. The effects of floral design and display on pollinator economics and pollen dispersal Lawrence D. Harder, Neal M. Williams, Crispin Y. Jordan and William A. Nelson; 16. Pollinator behaviour and plant speciation: looking beyond the 'ethological isolation' paradigm Nickolas M. Waser.

Editorial Reviews

"Cognitive Ecology of Pollination is a book I would recommend to both graduate students and colleagues studying in botany, zoology, or pollination biology at any level of Organization." Ecology

"...the editors have done a great job... The book provides an excellent introduction to the field... it is simply an excellent review of mechanistic approaches to pollinator behaviour... Anyone interested in pollination biology, or mutualism in general, should read this book." Ralph V. Cartar, Quarterly Review of Biology

"Chittka and Thompson have produced an excellent compilation of 16 chapters, all of which work from a central premise that pollinators, mostly insects but also birds and bats, may express highly labile preferences for particular floral types. I liked this book. It is uniformly well written and well edited. The figures and tables are easy to decipher and headings and sub-headings efficiently and effectively used. Finally, I believe that the editors met their goal of bridging the gaps that seemingly exist between different traditions: zoology vs. botany, functional vs. causal biology, organismal vs. population level analysis." Bulletin of the Entomological Society of Canada

"Interesting ideas are presented throughout the book," Johanne Brunet, Plant Science Bulletin

From the Publisher