Exploring Floral Preferences of Insect Flower Visitors

As a part of evolution and survival, flowering plants develop certain floral and plant characteristics such as height, flower color, flower type, and flower shape in order to attract beneficial, pollinating, and plant-feeding insects. Research suggests that flower appearance can directly influence a pollinator’s preference and behavior toward floral resources. Nonetheless, insect organisms provide arthropod-mediated ecosystem services (AMES), such as pollination, biological control, and decomposition which help to “enhance and sustain” human life. Pollination services to the U.S. agricultural crops is valued at $10 billion annually and one-third of the food supply the human body requires depends on insect pollination, therefore, it is important to understand the preferred plant characteristics of these flower visitors. After visual observations were conducted on insect visitation to different floral resource types in the Research and Education Garden located on the UGA Griffin Campus between June 12-June 23, 2014, it was concluded that flower color was pivotal to pollinator attractiveness. Data showed that flower shape and flower type also influenced visitation of plant-feeding and beneficial insects. In the future, these findings will be used to help the public select the proper insect-attracting plants to be placed in a garden while eliminating plants that may lure insect pests.