Models of optimal foraging and resource partitioning: Deep corollas for long tongues

Abstract

We model the optimal foraging strategies for 2 nectarivore species, differing in the length of their proboscis, that exploit the nectar provided by 2 types of flowers, differing in the depths of their corollas. When like flowers appear in clumps, nectarivores must decide whether to forage at a patch of deep or shallow flowers. If nectarivores forage optimally, at least one flower type will be used by a single nectarivore species. Long-tongued foragers will normally visit deep flowers and short-tongued foragers shallow flowers, although extreme asymmetries in metabolic costs may lead to the opposite arrangement. When deep and shallow flowers are randomly interspersed, nectarivores must decide, on encounter with a flower, whether to collect its nectar or continue searching. At low nectarivore densities, the optimal strategy involves exploiting every encountered flower; however, as nectarivore densities increase and resources become scarce, long-tongued individuals should start concentrating on deep flowers and short-tongued individuals on shallow flowers. Therefore, regardless of the spatial distribution of flowers, corolla depth can determine which nectarivore species exploit the nectar from each flower type in a given community. It follows that corolla elongation can evolve as a means to keep nectar thieves at bay if short-tongued visitors are less efficient pollinators than long-tongued visitors. © The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology. All rights reserved.