Studies of pollinator foraging behaviour have played an important role in furthering our understanding of plant-pollinator interactions (e.g., Schmitt 1980; Chittka et al. 1999; Maloof & Inouye 2000). Artificial flowers are often useful in foraging studies because of the degree of control they allow over variables such as floral cues, nectar sugar concentrations, and timing of reward provision. In some cases a researcher can simply refill flowers manually as they are emptied (e.g., Gegear & Laverty 2005). However, in experiments in which floral rewards vary in volume or composition or in which the experimental array occupies a large area, this approach can easily become impractical. In these cases, a substantial amount of time may need to be spent refilling flowers between the subject’s foraging bouts. Furthermore, when large numbers of flowers are used, the water in the sugar syrup can evaporate away before it is consumed.
Researchers have designed a variety of self-refilling artificial flowers to solve these problems, each with its own advantages and disadvantages (Tab. 1). A particularly inexpensive and versatile design is described by Makino and Sakai (2007) and further developed by Thomson et al. (2012). In these flowers, a thin wick carries sugar solution from a reservoir into a flower. The flowers are simple and inexpensive to construct and can run for long periods of time. However, the rate of refilling cannot easily be controlled.
