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Summary: Simulation of Floral Specialization in Bees
Dan Ashlock
Mathematics Department
Iowa State University
Ames, Iowa 50011
danwell@iastate.edu
Jessica Oftelie
Mathematics Department
Iowa State University
Ames, Iowa 50011
joftelie@iastate.edu
Abstract-- In this study the nectar-gathering behavior of pop-
ulation of virtual bees is observed during visits to a field of
simulated flowers over several hundred generations. The object
of the study is to see if floral constancy evolves in the virtual
bees. Floral constancy, observed in real bees, is the tendency to
harvest nectar from only one type of flower. Flowers can only
reproduce if they have received the proper pollen type from a
visiting bee and so floral constancy is potentially of substantial
importance to flowering plants. The virtual bees are evolved for
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