BEYOND FLORAL BATEMANIA - GENDER BIASES IN SELECTION FOR POLLINATION SUCCESS

For over a decade, Bateman's principle has been used to argue that the showy petals and sweet nectar of flowers are evolutionarily more male than female-that they are adaptations principally for promoting the e xport of pollen rather than the setting of seed. Here we present alter native views. (1) We question whether the assumptions of Bateman's pri nciple have been generally upheld for angiosperms. (2) We present a pa th model that contradicts Bateman's principle by asserting that floral attractiveness characters might well affect fitness more deterministi cally through female than through male function. (3) We envision an ep isodic selection scenario that has the same outcome as Bateman's princ iple but is based specifically on the ecology and mechanics of pollina tion. In the end, we recognize that selection on the displays and rewa rds of flowers is probably often gender biased (one way or the other), but we warn against reflexive invocation of Bateman's principle, whic h is neither the only nor the best way to think about the problem.