ArticleThe Journal of experimental biology2021
Bumblebees can detect floral humidity.
Article in The Journal of experimental biology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed.
- Temperature and Pollinators Drive Evolutionary and Plastic Variation in Leaf and Petal Epicuticular Waxes.Journal of chemical ecology · 2026Article
- Article
- Bumblebees learn to use antennal and tarsal taste to predict the presence of nectar rewards in flowers.The Journal of experimental biology · 2025Article
- Building beauty: Understanding how hormone signaling regulates petal patterning and morphogenesis.The Plant journal : for cell and molecular biology · 2025Review
- Three-dimensional ultrastructural characterization of Drosophila melanogaster hygrosensilla across humidity conditions.PloS one · 2025Article
- A dynamic humidity arena to explore humidity-related behaviours in insects.The Journal of experimental biology · 2024Article
- The behavioural responses of bumblebeesRoyal Society open science · 2024Article
- A signal-like role for floral humidity in a nocturnal pollination system.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Eco-Evo-Devo of petal pigmentation patterning.Essays in biochemistry · 2022Article
- Synthetic fertilizers alter floral biophysical cues and bumblebee foraging behavior.PNAS nexus · 2022Article
- The Ability of Bumblebees Bombus terrestris (Hymenoptera: Apidae) to Detect Floral Humidity is Dependent Upon Environmental Humidity.Environmental entomology · 2022Article
- Flower sharing and pollinator health: a behavioural perspective.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Review
- Article
- Approach Direction Prior to Landing Explains Patterns of Colour Learning in Bees.Frontiers in physiology · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Floral humidity, a region of elevated humidity in the headspace of the flower, occurs in many plant species and may add to their multimodal floral displays. So far, the ability to detect and respond to floral humidity cues has been only established for hawkmoths when they locate and extract nectar while hovering in front of some moth-pollinated flowers. To test whether floral humidity can be used by other more widespread generalist pollinators, we designed artificial flowers that presented biologically relevant levels of humidity similar to those shown by flowering plants. Bumblebees showed a spontaneous preference for flowers that produced higher floral humidity. Furthermore, learning experiments showed that bumblebees are able to use differences in floral humidity to distinguish between rewarding and non-rewarding flowers. Our results indicate that bumblebees are sensitive to different levels of floral humidity. In this way floral humidity can add to the information provided by flowers and could impact pollinator behaviour more significantly than previously thought.
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