Oil‐Gathering Bees Visit Flowers of Eglandular Morphs of the Oil‐Producing Malpighiaceae1

The visiting behaviour of oil‐gathering, anthophorid bees on eglandular morphs of two Malpighiaceae species was observed in southeastern Brazil. The bees landed on eglandular flowers apparently by mistake, as suggested by their making one to a few scraping movements on landing, and behaving in the same way as they scrape oil glands on glandular flowers. After perceiving their mistake the bees either left the flower, making one to a few additional visits to other eglandular flowers before leaving the plant, or switched to pollen collecting. Large and medium‐sized species ofCentris, and someEpicharis, left the flowers after mistake visits, thus wasting time and energy, whereas smallCentrisand largerEpicharisswitched to pollen harvesting, thus turning a mistake into a rewarding visit. Eglandular flowers of bothBanisteriopsis muricataandHeteropterys aceroidesattracted oil‐gathering bees by deceit and probably acted as mimics of glandular flowers of their own species (automimicry). The pollination of eglandular morphs of these two Malpighiaceae species seems dependent mainly on the opportunistic, mixed oil‐pollen gathering behaviour of deceived bees such asEpicharis schrottkyi. We suggest that some showy, eglandular species such asBanisteriopsis luteamay act as general mimics of other, oil‐rewarding Malpighiaceae species.