scholarly journals Parallel evolution of angiosperm colour signals: common evolutionary pressures linked to hymenopteran vision

2012 ◽  
Vol 279 (1742) ◽  
pp. 3606-3615 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian G. Dyer ◽  
Skye Boyd-Gerny ◽  
Stephen McLoughlin ◽  
Marcello G. P. Rosa ◽  
Vera Simonov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Northern Hemisphere ◽  
Parallel Evolution ◽  
Flower Colour ◽  
Flowering Plants ◽  
Similar Distribution ◽  
Colour Discrimination ◽  
Colour Space ◽  
Angiosperm Species ◽  
Close Fit ◽  
Colour Signals

Flowering plants in Australia have been geographically isolated for more than 34 million years. In the Northern Hemisphere, previous work has revealed a close fit between the optimal discrimination capabilities of hymenopteran pollinators and the flower colours that have most frequently evolved. We collected spectral data from 111 Australian native flowers and tested signal appearance considering the colour discrimination capabilities of potentially important pollinators. The highest frequency of flower reflectance curves is consistent with data reported for the Northern Hemisphere. The subsequent mapping of Australian flower reflectances into a bee colour space reveals a very similar distribution of flower colour evolution to the Northern Hemisphere. Thus, flowering plants in Australia are likely to have independently evolved spectral signals that maximize colour discrimination by hymenoptera. Moreover, we found that the degree of variability in flower coloration for particular angiosperm species matched the range of reflectance colours that can only be discriminated by bees that have experienced differential conditioning. This observation suggests a requirement for plasticity in the nervous systems of pollinators to allow generalization of flowers of the same species while overcoming the possible presence of non-rewarding flower mimics.

scholarly journals Major Flower Pigments Originate Different Colour Signals to Pollinators

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eduardo Narbona ◽  
José Carlos del Valle ◽  
Montserrat Arista ◽  
María Luisa Buide ◽  
Pedro Luis Ortiz
Keyword(s):  
Flower Colour ◽  
Visual Space ◽  
Colour Space ◽  
Chromatic Contrast ◽  
Visual Model ◽  
Flower Colours ◽  
Flower Pigments ◽  
Plant Pollinator ◽  
Colour Signals ◽  
Reflectance Data

Flower colour is mainly due to the presence and type of pigments. Pollinator preferences impose selection on flower colour that ultimately acts on flower pigments. Knowing how pollinators perceive flowers with different pigments becomes crucial for a comprehensive understanding of plant-pollinator communication and flower colour evolution. Based on colour space models, we studied whether main groups of pollinators, specifically hymenopterans, dipterans, lepidopterans and birds, differentially perceive flower colours generated by major pigment groups. We obtain reflectance data and conspicuousness to pollinators of flowers containing one of the pigment groups more frequent in flowers: chlorophylls, carotenoids and flavonoids. Flavonoids were subsequently classified in UV-absorbing flavonoids, aurones-chalcones and the anthocyanins cyanidin, pelargonidin, delphinidin, and malvidin derivatives. We found that flower colour loci of chlorophylls, carotenoids, UV-absorbing flavonoids, aurones-chalcones, and anthocyanins occupied different regions of the colour space models of these pollinators. The four groups of anthocyanins produced a unique cluster of colour loci. Interestingly, differences in colour conspicuousness among the pigment groups were almost similar in the bee, fly, butterfly, and bird visual space models. Aurones-chalcones showed the highest chromatic contrast values, carotenoids displayed intermediate values, and chlorophylls, UV-absorbing flavonoids and anthocyanins presented the lowest values. In the visual model of bees, flowers with UV-absorbing flavonoids (i.e., white flowers) generated the highest achromatic contrasts. Ours findings suggest that in spite of the almost omnipresence of floral anthocyanins in angiosperms, carotenoids and aurones-chalcones generates higher colour conspicuousness for main functional groups of pollinators.

Spectral Sensitivity of Photoreceptors and Colour Vision in the Solitary Bee, Osmia Rufa

1988 ◽  
Vol 136 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-52
Author(s):  
R. MENZEL ◽  
E. STEINMANN ◽  
J. DE SOUZA ◽  
W. BACKHAUS
Keyword(s):  
Spectral Sensitivity ◽  
Colour Vision ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Just Noticeable Difference ◽  
Species Discrimination ◽  
Colour Space ◽  
Absorption Function ◽  
Perceptual Distance ◽  
Line Elements ◽  
Colour Signals

The spectral sensitivity of single photoreceptors of Osmia rufa was determined by a fast voltage-clamp technique. Three receptor types were found whose spectral sensitivity functions followed a rhodopsin-like photopigment absorption function with λmax values at 348nm (ultraviolet receptor), 436nm (blue receptor) and 572nm (green receptor). The λmax of the green receptor in Osmia rufa is shifted to much longer wavelengths compared with other insect species. Discrimination of colour signals was tested after training a bee at the entrance to its nest. The colour signals were filter discs (70 mm in diameter) with a hole (10 mm in diameter) in the centre and the bees quickly learned to use the coloured disc as a marker of the nest entrance. Tests were dual forced-choice tests with two coloured discs closely positioned next to each other. 94 different tests were each repeated 5–15 times and were performed after training to 12 different colour signals. A photoreceptor model was used to calculate the loci of the colour signals in a three-dimensional colour space and in a chromaticity diagram. The perceptual distance between the colour loci was calculated as line elements (minimum number of just noticeable difference, jnd-steps), which were based on the noiseproperties of the photoreceptors. The discrimination determined by the behavioural tests correlated very well with the jnd-steps. The correlation was better for the line elements in the colour plane than in the colour space. Osmia rufa was compared with the honeybee Apis mellifera and the stingless bee Melipona quadrifasciata. There is no difference in colour selection between Osmia and Apis, whereas Melipona discriminates less well in the violet-blue region. The model calculation was used to compare the chromaticity diagrams and the spectral discrimination functions of the three species. It is concluded that the receptor model used in this study predicts the discrimination behaviour of the three bee species very well. Therefore, comparative studies on colour vision in flowervisiting insects may be based on spectral measurements of the photoreceptors, and in many cases this reduces the extent of laborious behavioural studies.

The development of a colour discrimination index

2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (5) ◽  
pp. 681-700 ◽  
Author(s):  
L Xu ◽  
MR Luo ◽  
M Pointer
Keyword(s):  
Surgical Procedures ◽  
Discrimination Index ◽  
Colour Discrimination ◽  
Colour Space ◽  
Colour Temperature ◽  
Industrial Inspection ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Colour Rendering ◽  
Three Components

One aspect of colour rendering is to discern the difference between colours and colour discrimination. This is important for applications such as surgical procedures and industrial inspection. Two psychophysical experiments were conducted using computer generated images and real materials, including stone, wood and organs. The results were used to develop a colour discrimination index which includes three components: the CAM02-UCS uniform colour space, the correlated colour temperature and a set of test samples.

Mountain Park: a plant refugium in the Canadian Rocky Mountains

1974 ◽  
Vol 52 (6) ◽  
pp. 1393-1409 ◽  
Author(s):  
John G. Packer ◽  
Dale H. Vitt
Keyword(s):  
Rocky Mountains ◽  
Flowering Plants ◽  
Canadian Rocky Mountains ◽  
Present Distribution ◽  
Angiosperm Species

It is suggested that the area in the vicinity of Mountain Park, Alberta, (52°50′ N; 117°20′ W) in the Canadian Rocky Mountains was a refugium during the Wisconsin period, where alpine and montane bryophytes and flowering plants survived the glaciation in situ. Evidence for this view includes data derived from geological investigations and from the present distribution of a number of bryophyte and angiosperm species. Alternative explanations to account for these distributions are discussed and reasons for rejecting them as highly improbable are presented.

scholarly journals Australian native flower colours: does nectar reward drive bee pollinator flower preferences?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mani Shrestha ◽  
Jair E Garcia ◽  
Martin Burd ◽  
Adrian G Dyer
Keyword(s):  
Flower Colour ◽  
Chromatic Contrast ◽  
Nectar Volume ◽  
Eastern Australia ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Flower Colours ◽  
Colour Category ◽  
Colour Preferences ◽  
Nectar Rewards ◽  
Colour Signals

AbstractColour is an important signal that flowering plants use to attract insect pollinators like bees. Previous research in Germany has shown that nectar volume is higher for flower colours that are innately preferred by European bees, suggesting an important link between colour signals, bee preferences and floral rewards. In Australia, flower colour signals have evolved in parallel to the Northern hemisphere to enable easy discrimination and detection by the phylogenetically ancient trichromatic visual system of bees, and native Australian bees also possess similar innate colour preferences to European bees. We measured 59 spectral signatures from flowers present at two preserved native habitats in South Eastern Australia and tested whether there were any significant differences in the frequency of flowers presenting higher nectar rewards depending upon the colour category of the flower signals, as perceived by bees. We also tested if there was a significant correlation between chromatic contrast and the frequency of flowers presenting higher nectar rewards. For the entire sample, and for subsets excluding species in the Asteraceae and Orchidaceae, we found no significant difference among colour categories in the frequency of high nectar reward. This suggests that whilst such relationships between flower colour signals and nectar volume rewards have been observed at a field site in Germany, the effect is likely to be specific at a community level rather than a broad general principle that has resulted in the common signalling of bee flower colours around the world.

scholarly journals The colour lexicon of the Serbian language - a study of dark blue and dark red colour categories Part 2: Categorical facilitation with Serbian colour terms

Psihologija ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 289-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivana Jakovljev ◽  
Suncica Zdravkovic
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Discrimination Task ◽  
Category Effect ◽  
Colour Discrimination ◽  
Colour Space ◽  
Linguistic Categories ◽  
Category Effects ◽  
First Time ◽  
Colour Terms ◽  
Dark Blue

Part 1 of this study (Jakovljev & Zdravkovic, 2018) isolated two frequent and salient non- BCTs in the Serbian language: teget ?dark blue? and bordo ?dark red?, that segregate the blue and the red part of the colour space respectively. Now we conducted two experiments to additionally test the cognitive salience of these terms, investigating whether they can produce the category effects in a colour discrimination task. We demonstrated within? and between-participants agreement about the placement of the boundary in the blue and the red part of the colour space, additionally showing that Serbian speakers have distinctive representations of these categories. Analysis of RT in the discrimination task showed category effects ? participants were faster when discriminating colour pairs that belong to different linguistic categories than the pairs from the same category. These results for the first time demonstrated category effect in the Serbian language as well as the category effect in speeded discrimination of the red part of the colour space for any language. They also support views that category effect is linked to higher cognitive processes; hence it can be language specific.

scholarly journals Seeing in colour: a hundred years of studies on bee vision since the work of the Nobel laureate Karl von Frisch

2015 ◽  
Vol 127 (1) ◽  
pp. 66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian G. Dyer ◽  
Jair E. Garcia ◽  
Mani Shrestha ◽  
Klaus Lunau
Keyword(s):  
Parallel Evolution ◽  
Flower Colour ◽  
Nobel Laureate ◽  
Native Bees ◽  
Colour Perception ◽  
Sugar Water ◽  
Published Evidence ◽  
Bee Vision ◽  
Karl Von Frisch

One hundred years ago it was often assumed that the capacity to perceive colour required a human brain. Then in 1914 a young Austrian researcher working at Munich University in Germany published evidence that honeybees could be trained to collect sugar water from a ‘blue’ coloured card, and find the colour among a number of different shades of achromatic grey. Von Frisch thus established honeybees as an important model of sensory processing in animals, and for work including his demonstration that bees used a symbolic dance language, won a Nobel Prize in 1973. This work led to the establishment of several research groups in Germany that developed a rich understanding of how bee vision has shaped flower colour evolution in the Northern Hemisphere. Applying these insights to Australian native bees offers great insights due to the long-term geological isolation of the continent. Australian bees have a phylogenetically ancient colour visual system and similar colour perception to honeybees. In Australia similar patterns of flower colour evolution have resulted and provide important evidence of parallel evolution, thanks to the pioneering work of Karl von Frisch 100 years ago.

scholarly journals How flower colour signals allure bees and hummingbirds: a community‐level test of the bee avoidance hypothesis

2018 ◽  
Vol 222 (2) ◽  
pp. 1112-1122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Gabriela Gutierrez Camargo ◽  
Klaus Lunau ◽  
Marco Antônio Batalha ◽  
Sebastian Brings ◽  
Vinícius Lourenço Garcia Brito ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Flower Colour ◽  
Community Level ◽  
Colour Signals

Colourful cones: how did flower colour first evolve?

2019 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 759-767 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula J Rudall
Keyword(s):  
Colour Vision ◽  
Flower Colour ◽  
Flowering Plants ◽  
Seed Plants ◽  
Plant Tissues ◽  
Secondary Effect ◽  
Reproductive Structures ◽  
Seed Cone ◽  
Evolutionary Pathways ◽  
Flower Pigments

Abstract Angiosperms that are biotically pollinated typically produce flowers with bright and contrasting colours that help to attract pollinators and hence contribute to the reproductive success of the species. This colourful array contrasts with the much less multicoloured reproductive structures of the four living gymnosperm lineages, which are mostly wind pollinated, though cycads and Gnetales are predominantly pollinated by insects that feed on surface fluids from the pollination drops. This review examines the possible evolutionary pathways and cryptic clues for flower colour in both living and fossil seed plants. It investigates how the ancestral flowering plants could have overcome the inevitable trade-off that exists between attracting pollinators and minimizing herbivory, and explores the possible evolutionary and biological inferences from the colours that occur in some living gymnosperms. The red colours present in the seed-cone bracts of some living conifers result from accumulation of anthocyanin pigments; their likely primary function is to help protect the growing plant tissues under particular environmental conditions. Thus, the visual cue provided by colour in flower petals could have first evolved as a secondary effect, probably post-dating the evolution of bee colour vision but occurring before the subsequent functional accumulation of a range of different flower pigments.

scholarly journals The colours and pigments of flowers with special reference to genetics

1909 ◽  
Vol 81 (545) ◽  
pp. 44-60 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Special Reference ◽  
Chemical Reactions ◽  
Flower Colour ◽  
Detailed Examination ◽  
Flowering Plants ◽  
Antirrhinum Majus ◽  
General Survey ◽  
Future Time ◽  
Yellow Pigments ◽  
The Relationship

Investigation, of which the following is some account, have been undertaken with a view to being of assistance in the interpretation of the phenomena observed in the interpretation of the phenomena observed in the inheritance of flower-colour. An attempt has been made to classify, necessity roughly, the pigments, more especially those soluble in water, found in flowering plants, and at the same time to ascertain whether there is any connection between the genetic bahaviour of pigments and their chemical reactions and constitution. On the basis of this classification it was thought that, at some future time, further investigation might be carried out in greater detail among that various classes of pigments. This account deals more with yellow pigments than with red; attention was first directed to the yellow group, because of a certain correlation between reds and yellows observed in the inheritance of flower-colour in Antirrhinum majus , the relationship suggesting that a greater knowledge of yellows might be useful in classifying the reds. No detailed examination has been made of any one pigment, but merely a general survey of the colouring matters of genera from various natural orders.

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