Do waterlilies increase fecundity by making pollinators go for a swim?

Water lilies produce a nectar ‘bath’, using hyperactive nectar glands to fill a carpellary basin with stigmatic exudate. Flower visitors slip into the solution which washes pollen off the insect increasing fecundity. Our model species, Nymphaea ampla, makes functionally female flowers on the first of a three-day anthesis. Dead pollinators in the bath and changes in the behavior of insect visitors immersed in the exudate were observed during initial field observations. The nectar has been hypothesized to contain secondary metabolites which act as surfactants or intoxicate the pollinator thereby facilitating the extraction of pollen loads. We investigate i) flower fecundity as it relates to pollinator visitation number and duration of visits and ii.) the effects of water lily exudates on visitor motor function. Pollinator numbers and visitation time were recorded on tagged first-day flowers from a cultivated population of Nymphaea ampla. The flowers were allowed to develop into fruit, and seeds were later extracted to estimate seed set. Fecundity and behavioral statistics are pending. Honey bees (Apis mellifera) were used to examine the effects of exudate on pollinator behavior and mortality. To test if exudate was directly lethal, foraging adults were captured at the colony entrance and exposed to exudate or water for different amounts of time. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that exposure to exudate did not significantly increase mortality when compared to water exposure and untreated controls. The Observer software (Noldus) was used to capture and quantify differences in Apis mellifera motor function following exposure to water or exudate.