Leitung:

Flowers come in different colours and shapes to attract specific pollinators and to ensure their optimal pollination. Through evolution flowers have adapted their colours to the visual system of the pollinator (CHITTKA et al. 1996). In our project we investigated this interaction in Costa Rica, Regio Golfo Dulce. We used photospectrometry to obtain the spectral reflectance pattern of the flowers. The results of the analysis clearly show that red non-UV reflecting flowers are pollinated almost exclusively by hummingbirds; flowers pollinated by hymenoptera or butterflies showed a variety of colours. Overall, flowers that reflect in the UV region are disproportionately more often pollinated by hymenoptera compared to non-UV reflecting flowers. We plotted the measured flower colours in a bee colour space (CHITTKA, KEVAN 2005) to find out which colours are clearly visible for the bee and which are not. The results showed that hummingbird pollinated flowers got nearley the same shade, but hymenoptera and butterfly pollinated flowers are spreaded over a larger area so bees are able to recognize a difference easily