关键词: 小峰熊蜂, 传粉, 花特征, 访花行为, 偏爱性

Abstract: While foraging， insect pollinators often restrict their visits to one type of flower. We measured nine types of floral selectivity (preference) in the bumblebee Bombus hypocrita workers foraging on mixed arrays of artificial flower types differing in either colour only (variation in a single trait) or colour plus additional traits (variation in multiple traits). The results showed that there was a significant degree of preference as the number of flower traits (including size，morph and odour) was increased (P<0.01). There was a descreasing tendency for foraging rate as the number of flower colours was increased from two to four，and no significant relationship between the number of flower colours and preference（P>0.05）. The number (108±9) of 5 cm purple flowers visited by B. hypocrita was significantly higher than that (40±4) of 3 cm purple flowers (P<0.01)，suggesting thatB. hypocrita has a preference for visiting 5 cm purple flower. The number (63±8) of purple flowers with lemony flavour visited by B. hypocrita was significantly lower than that (88±2) of purple flowers with strawberry flavour (P<0.05)， suggesting that B. hypocrita had a preference for visiting the purple flowers with strawberry flavour.

Key words: Bombus hypocrita, pollination, floral traits, foraging behavior preferenc