Behavioural plasticity and sex differences in host finding of a specialized bee species

Many animals feed on flowers, and visual as well as olfactory cues are considered as most important mediators in animal-plant interactions. However, the relative importance of these cues is not well understood. Bees are the most important animal pollinators worldwide and here, we determined the importance of decoupled and combined visual and olfactory cues of Lysimachia punctata (Primulaceae) for host plant location in both sexes of the specialized, solitary bee, Macropis fulvipes (Melittidae). Lysimachia-inexperienced female bees preferred olfactory over visual cues though visual cues increased the attractiveness of olfactory ones. In experienced females, the importance of visual cues was increased. Both Lysimachia-naive and -experienced males relied more on visual cues as compared to females. This study demonstrates that the relative weighting of cues used for host plant finding depends on the sex and experience of M. fulvipes. The latter finding reveals the presence of learning-induced behavioural plasticity in host plant finding for a bee species. It may allow the bee to forage highly efficient. Visually guided female detection on flowers by males is a likely functional explanation for the differences in the weighting of visual and olfactory cues between the sexes.