Resource Competition Triggers the Co-Evolution of Long Tongues and Deep Corolla Tubes

Abstract

Co-evolution between tongue length and corolla-tube depth is a robust outcome of the model, obtained for a wide range of parameter values, but it requires that tongue elongation is substantially easier for one pollinator species than for the other, that pollinators follow a near-optimal foraging strategy, that pollinators experience competition for resources and that plants experience pollination limitation.