So far, most studies have focused on the outcome of florivory on plant fitness ( Haas and Lortie, 2020 Boaventura et al., 2022). The effects of florivore feeding can be local, restricted to a single flower, and/or systemic, involving the activation of phytohormonal signaling pathways ( Chrétien et al., 2018 Rusman et al., 2019a).

Indeed, there is accumulated evidence that pollinators do respond to damages caused by florivores, for example, performing less visits ( Krupnick et al., 1999 Mothershead and Marquis, 2000 Pohl et al., 2006 McCall, 2008 Tsuji et al., 2016 Muola et al., 2017), which has negative effects on pollination success ( Kessler and Halitschke, 2009 Haas and Lortie, 2020). However, we know little about if and how florivores, by feeding on flowers, affect these signals and consequently the visual ( Johnson et al., 1995 Krupnick et al., 1999) and chemical advertisements ( McCall and Irwin, 2006 Lucas-Barbosa et al., 2011 Späthe, 2013 Vega-Polanco et al., 2020), which could disrupt the communication between flowers and pollinators. Our knowledge is growing fast concerning the visual and chemical signal diversity involved in plant–pollinator communication ( Leonard and Masek, 2014 Schaefer and Ruxton, 2015 Kantsa et al., 2017 Leonard and Francis, 2017). Despite visual floral cues being important for foraging in hummingbirds, our results emphasise that changes in the corolla outline had a neutral effect on pollination, allowing the maintenance of florivore–plant–pollinator systems without detriment to any partner. However, this change did not affect hummingbird pollination. The feeding activity of the most common florivore did not alter the intra-floral colour pattern, floral scent, and nectar volume, but changed the corolla outline. Following, we experimentally tested if the most severe florivory pattern affected hummingbird pollination. We surveyed natural florivory levels and patterns, examined short-term local effects of floral damages caused by the most common florivore, a caterpillar, on floral outline, intra-floral colour pattern and floral scent, as well as on the amount of nectar. Here, we investigated if damages caused by florivores compromise a Neotropical hummingbird pollination system, by modifying the floral advertisements and the nectar resource. Many flowers are fed on by florivores, but we know little about if and how feeding on flowers affects their visual and chemical advertisement and nectar resource, which could disrupt pollination. 3Department of Environment and Biodiversity, Paris Lodron University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria.2Laboratory of Ecology and Evolution of Plant-Animal Interactions, Institute of Biosciences, São Paulo State University, Botucatu, Brazil.1Postgraduate Program in Biological Sciences (Botany), Institute of Biosciences, São Paulo State University, Botucatu, Brazil.Priscila Tunes 1,2, Stefan Dötterl 3 and Elza Guimarães 2 *

Black and white 3 flowers outline