Pollinating insects such as bumblebees often repeatedly visit the same type of flower, even when a variety of flowers bloom nearby. This behavior is known as “flower constancy.” Darwin speculated that flower constancy was a passive response to avoid the effort involved in remembering the different flower characteristics. However, researchers at University of Tsukuba have revealed that this theory is incomplete, since it focuses too heavily on “memory constraints.”

Instead, they found that flower constancy actually results from an optimal strategy that dynamically adjusts to balance the time required to recall different flower types with the time required to move between flowers. The findings are published in the journal Functional Ecology.