Scent guides hawk moths to the best-fitting flowers

May 18, 2016

That the morphology of many pollinators corresponds strikingly to the shape of the flowers they pollinate was observed more than 150 years ago by Charles Darwin. He described this perfect mutual adaptation of flowers and pollinators as the result of a co-evolutionary process. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, have now provided further proof of the famous naturalist's theory. They were able to show that Manduca sexta moths acquired the highest energy gain when they visited flowers that matched the length of their proboscis. The moths were supported in their choice of the best-fitting nectar sources by an innate preference for the scent of matching flowers.

Charles Darwin, the founder of the theory of evolution, was an astute observer of nature. His extraordinary understanding of natural history laid the foundation of his theory about the origin of species. In 1862, he published a book about orchids and their pollinators in which he described the orchid Angraecum sesquipedale, which was cultivated in England but originated from Madagascar. Because of the flower's morphology, Darwin hypothesized that there must be a pollinator in the plant's native habitat with an extraordinarily long proboscis enabling the nectar in the flower to be reached. In 1903, more than 20 years after Darwin's death, such a pollinator was in fact discovered: the hawk moth Xanthopan morganii, which received the subspecies name praedicta (the predicted) in honor of Darwin's hypothesis. This moth has a proboscis which is more than 22 centimeters long.

Biologists use the term "pollination syndrome" when they explain the amazing diversity of flowering plants and pollinators which has emerged as a result of co-evolution. A flower-pollinator system can be highly specialized. Both partners benefit from the relationship: The plant increases the likelihood it will transfer pollen to flowers of conspecifics and not waste it on other species. Specialized pollinators, on the other hand, have an advantage over competing generalist pollinators, which are also foraging for nectar, because their proboscis is better adapted. The disadvantages of such specialization are that the reproductive success of the highly specialized plant wanes when its pollinator is absent, and the survival rate of the pollinator decreases in the absence of the plant as well.

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