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Science 28 August 2009:
Vol. 325. no. 5944, p. 1072
DOI: 10.1126/science.1173503
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Technical Comments

Response to Comment on "Floral Iridescence, Produced by Diffractive Optics, Acts As a Cue for Animal Pollinators"

Heather M. Whitney,1 Mathias Kolle,2,3 Piers Andrew,3 Lars Chittka,4 Ullrich Steiner,2,3 Beverley J. Glover1,*

Morehouse and Rutowski make interesting comments on the difficulties of untangling complex optical phenomena. However, our use of a four-colored transfer test in our original study, along with spectrophotometric analysis of the nonoverlapping colors produced by our target disks, allows us to conclude that bees can learn to use iridescence as a foraging cue.

1 Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EA, UK.
2 Department of Physics, Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, J. J. Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE, UK.
3 Nanoscience Centre, University of Cambridge, 11 J. J. Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0FF, UK.
4 Queen Mary University of London, London E1 4NS, UK.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: bjg26{at}cam.ac.uk

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)