Effects of flower-morph frequency and distribution on recruitment and behaviour of honeybees

Frequency and distribution of flower morphs were varied in artificial flower patches. Recruitment of naive honeybees (Apis mellifera) to each flower morph and behaviour of 'crop-attached' honeybees were observed. Naive bees exhibited a preference for a flower morph (preference effect in recruitment). Furthermore, there appeared to be a disproportionately high recruitment of naive honeybees to the less abundant flower morph (frequency effect). However, honeybees became and remained individually' constant to each flower morph for all flower-morph frequencies and distributions tested. Implications of the data for models of sympatric evolution in angiosperms and for pollination systems are discussed.