Artificial flower discs were designed to mimic the bullseye sizes of the three hibiscus flowers to test if bumble bees can distinguish between bullseye sizes. (IMAGE)

University of Cambridge

Artificial flower discs were designed to mimic the bullseye sizes of the three hibiscus flowers to test if bumble bees can distinguish between bullseye sizes.

Caption

Researchers compared the relative success of the bullseye patterns in attracting pollinators using artificial flower discs that mimicked the three different hibiscus bullseye dimensions - H. richardsonii (small bullseye covering 4% of the flower disc), H. trionum wild type (medium bullseye covering 16%) and a transgenic line (mutation) of H. trionum (large bullseye covering 36%). 

Credit

Lucie Riglet

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