Publication Date:
2009-01-03
Description:
Iridescence, the change in hue of a surface with varying observation angles, is used by insects, birds, fish, and reptiles for species recognition and mate selection. We identified iridescence in flowers of Hibiscus trionum and Tulipa species and demonstrated that iridescence is generated through diffraction gratings that might be widespread among flowering plants. Although iridescence might be expected to increase attractiveness, it might also compromise target identification because the object's appearance will vary depending on the viewer's perspective. We found that bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) learn to disentangle flower iridescence from color and correctly identify iridescent flowers despite their continuously changing appearance. This ability is retained in the absence of cues from polarized light or ultraviolet reflectance associated with diffraction gratings.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Whitney, Heather M -- Kolle, Mathias -- Andrew, Piers -- Chittka, Lars -- Steiner, Ullrich -- Glover, Beverley J -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2009 Jan 2;323(5910):130-3. doi: 10.1126/science.1166256.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EA, UK.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19119235" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
Bees/*physiology
;
Color
;
Color Perception
;
Cues
;
*Flowers/cytology
;
*Hibiscus/cytology
;
*Optical Phenomena
;
*Pigmentation
;
Pigments, Biological
;
Plant Epidermis/cytology
;
Pollination
;
Spectrum Analysis
;
*Tulipa/cytology
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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