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Plants fall into pollination syndromes that reflect the type of pollinator being attracted. These are characteristics such as: overall flower size, the depth and width of the corolla, the color (including patterns called nectar guides that are visible only in ultraviolet light), the scent, amount of nectar, composition of nectar, etc. [2] For example, birds visit red flowers with long, narrow ...
Where the same plants have non-bee pollinators such as birds or other insects like flies, these are also indicated. Pollination by insects is called entomophily. Entomophily is a form of plant pollination whereby pollen is distributed by insects, particularly bees, Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), flies and beetles.
The earliest animal-pollinated flowers were shallow, cup-shaped blooms pollinated by insects such as beetles, so the syndrome of insect pollination was well established before the first appearance of bees. The novelty is that bees are specialized as pollination agents, with behavioral and physical modifications that specifically enhance ...
Anthecology, or pollination biology, is the study of pollination as well as the relationships between flowers and their pollinators. [1]: 8 Floral biology is a bigger field that includes these studies. Most flowering plants, or angiosperms, are pollinated by animals, and especially by insects. [2]
Pollination is necessary for plants to continue their populations and 3/4 of the plant species that contribute to the world's food supply are plants that require pollinators. [78] Insect pollinators, like bees, are large contributors to crop production, over 200 billion dollars worth of crop species are pollinated by these insects. [ 71 ]
Apidae is the largest family within the superfamily Apoidea, containing at least 5700 species of bees.The family includes some of the most commonly seen bees, including bumblebees and honey bees, but also includes stingless bees (also used for honey production), carpenter bees, orchid bees, cuckoo bees, and a number of other less widely known groups.
In other cases, generalist bees are just as, if not more, effective; pollination effectiveness may have less to do with female pollen provisioning and more to do with male mating competition. [9] In some cases, generalist Bombus species are more effective pollinators of Malvaceae flowers than the specialist P. bombiformis .
Most flowering plants depend on animals, such as bees, moths, and butterflies, to transfer their pollen between different flowers, and have evolved to attract these pollinators by various strategies, including brightly colored, large petals with patterns only visible to under ultraviolet light, attractive scents, and the production of nectar, a ...