Scribd
Upload
19 views4 pages

Insect Pollination: Characteristics & Roles

Flowers pollinated by insects typically advertise themselves with bright colors and patterns to attract pollinators like bees and butterflies. These pollinators have adaptations like mouthparts to collect nectar and pollen baskets on their legs. Flowers and insects have coevolved pollination mechanisms and behaviors that benefit each other, with flowers offering rewards to encourage pollinator fidelity and contact with reproductive structures. Many insect orders act as pollinators, while some plants are generalists pollinated by multiple orders. Flowers come in various shapes, colors, and sizes to attract different pollinators like bees and wasps through visual and olfactory cues.

Uploaded by

Stormbringer
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
19 views4 pages

Insect Pollination: Characteristics & Roles

Flowers pollinated by insects typically advertise themselves with bright colors and patterns to attract pollinators like bees and butterflies. These pollinators have adaptations like mouthparts to collect nectar and pollen baskets on their legs. Flowers and insects have coevolved pollination mechanisms and behaviors that benefit each other, with flowers offering rewards to encourage pollinator fidelity and contact with reproductive structures. Many insect orders act as pollinators, while some plants are generalists pollinated by multiple orders. Flowers come in various shapes, colors, and sizes to attract different pollinators like bees and wasps through visual and olfactory cues.

Uploaded by

Stormbringer
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

ENTOMOPHILY

Entomophily or insect pollination is a form of pollination whereby pollen


of plants, especially but not only of flowering plants, is distributed by
insects. Flowers pollinated by insects typically advertise themselves
with bright colours, sometimes with conspicuous patterns (honey
guides) leading to rewards of pollen and nectar; they may also have an
attractive scent which in some cases mimics insect pheromones. Insect
pollinators such as bees have adaptations for their role, such as lapping
or sucking mouthparts to take in nectar, and in some species also pollen
baskets on their hind legs. This required the coevolution of insects and
flowering plants in the development of pollination behaviour by the
insects and pollination mechanisms by the flowers, benefiting both
groups.

They particularly need pollinators to consistently choose flowers of the


same species, so they have evolved different lures to encourage
specific pollinators to maintain fidelity to the same species. The
attractions offered are mainly nectar, pollen, fragrances and oils. The
ideal pollinating insect is hairy (so that pollen adheres to it), and
spends time exploring the flower so that it comes into contact with the
reproductive structures.

Many insects are pollinators, particularly bees, Lepidoptera (


butterflies and moths), wasps, flies, ants and beetles. On the other
hand, some plants are generalists, being pollinated by insects in several
orders.
Flowers pollinated by bees and wasps vary in shape, colour and size. Yellow or blue plants are often visited, and
flowers may have ultra-violet nectar guides, that help the insect to find the nectary. Some flowers, like sage or
pea, have lower lips that will only open when sufficiently heavy insects, such as bees, land on them. With the lip
depressed, the anthers may bow down to deposit pollen on the insect's back. Other flowers, like tomato, may only
liberate their pollen by buzz pollination, a technique in which a bumblebee will cling on to a flower while vibrating
its flight muscles, and this dislodges the pollen. Because bees care for their brood, they need to collect more
food than just to maintain themselves, and therefore are important pollinators. Other bees are nectar thieves
and bite their way through the corolla in order to raid the nectary, in the process bypassing the reproductive
structures.
Ants are not well adapted to pollination but they have been shown to perform this function in
Polygonum cascadense and in certain desert plants with small blossoms near the ground with little fragrance or
visual attraction, small quantities of nectar and limited quantities of sticky pollen.
CHARACTERISTICS OF INSECT-POLLINATED FLOWERS-

1) Flowers are brightly colored, scented, and secrete nectar.

2) Pollen grains are larger, sticky, and spiny.

3) Pollen grains are fewer in number as they are transported mechanically by insects.

4) The stigma of flowers is small and deep within the corolla.

5) The stamens are within the corolla tube.

You might also like