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Bee on flower collecting nectar while picking up pollen.
Image courtesy of Creative Commons.
Bees
Bees (Order Hymenoptera, Family Apidae) are one of the most well-known pollinators and are the principal pollinators of many plants. Bees visit flowers to collect nectar and, in the process, pick up tiny pollen particles on their limbs and body which they transfer to the next flowers they visit. Bees have a mutually beneficial relationship with flowers, where bees get a food source and flowers get their pollen transported to other flowers to reproduce.
Photo Above: European hornet from student collection
Wasps also visit flowers, and some, like fig wasps (pictured above), may have special relationships with certain plant species.
Image courtesy of portioid.
Wasps
Although many fear wasps (Order Hymenoptera) for their aggressive behavior, they serve a major ecological role as pollinators. Research suggests that, compared to species of bees, many wasps show similar effectiveness in how many flowers they visit and how much pollen they gather per visit. They also spread pollen for specific flowering plant species that are not normally visited by other pollinators like bees. (Borchardt et al., 2024)
Cloudless sulphur (Phoebis sennae) on a purple flower.
Photo credit: Jennifer Siegmann, cc-0
Butterflies
Butterflies (Order Lepidoptera) were traditionally know as poor pollinators, but new research has shown that they are just as important as bumblebees. There is a pattern of butterflies traveling long distances contributing to a high pollen dispersal. More importantly, butterflies have also been noted to be he high quality pollinators due to the proportion of stigmas with pollen grains deposited after one visit.
Flies pick up pollen on small hairs called setae.
Image courtesy of The Manic Macrographer.
Flies
While flies (Order Diptera) are not the principal pollinators of most plants, research suggests they contribute significantly to pollination around the end of the flowering season. Flies have hairs called setae which catch pollen as they bury their heads into flowers to collect nectar. Many fly species also have high thermal tolerances which allow them to be active later into the colder months. (Cook et al., 2020)
Ladybug beetle on collecting pollen blue flowers.
Beetles
Out of all the pollinators, beetles (Order Coleoptera) were the first to visit and pollinate plants. They will often eat the more delicate parts of the plants including the petals before reaching the center of the flower to pollinate it. Because of their history as one of the first pollinators, their presence is especially important for the pollination of older species of flowers such as the magnolia flower. Sometimes referred to also as the "mess and soil" pollinators because of their pollination method where they eat the petals and leave small bits of extra plant matter and excrement behind.
References :
Borchardt, K.E., Holthaus, D., Soto Méndez, P.A. & Toth, A.L. (2024) Debunking wasp pollination: Wasps are comparable to bees in terms of plant interactions, body pollen and single-visit pollen deposition. Ecological Entomology, 49(4), 569–584. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1111/een.13329
Cook, D. F., Voss, S. C., Finch, J. T. D., Rader, R. C., Cook, J. M., & Spurr, C. J. (2020). The Role of Flies as Pollinators of Horticultural Crops: An Australian Case Study with Worldwide Relevance. Insects, 11(6), 341. https://doi.org/10.3390/insects11060341
The Manic Macrographer. (2015, July 28). Bug Eyed...... Flickr. https://flic.kr/p/wjDdtA
Ollerton, J., Coulthard, E., Tarrant, S., Woolford, J., Jorge, L. R., & Rech, A. R. (2024). Butterflies, bumblebees and hoverflies are equally effective pollinators of Knautia arvensis (Caprifoliaceae), a generalist plant species with compound inflorescences. Journal of Applied Entomology. https://doi.org/10.1111/jen.13345
portioid. (2017, December 4). Fig Wasp. Flickr. https://flic.kr/p/CvPURx
U.S. Forest Service. Forest Service Shield. (n.d.). https://www.fs.usda.gov/wildflowers/pollinators/animals/beetles.shtml
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