I have become interested in potentially doing a small study on non-bee pollinators by looking at what pollen are present on their bodies. I am unsure whether or not this would be a useful contribution, since while there appear to be many studies on the role of non-bee pollinators, there doesn't seem to be many studies indicating the state of the literature.
That being said I did find this paper which identifies some gaps in the literature but it is now somewhat out of date and only focuses on flies and not other pollinators.
Article Flies and flowers: Taxonomic diversity of anthophiles and pollinators
I would appreciate any insights into the state of the literature on non-bee pollinators and their contribution(s), as well as any interesting papers etc.
In particular is it known:
- Which plants each pollinator is responsible for pollinating and in what proportions
- Whether species labelled as pollinators actually pollinate or simply visit plants?
- Are there any species in which it is contested whether or not they act as pollinators?
- Are there any obvious gaps in the literature?
Thanks in advance! I look forward to hearing your thoughts!
>Are there any species in which it is contested whether or not they act as pollinators?
There are very few reports on termites as pollinator. We know for a fact that the orchid Rhizanthella gardneri can be pollinated by termites and that there are fossil records of termites as pollinators (Poinar Jr, 2017). I personally believe that there are more associations between flowers and termites in nature. There are plenty species of termites that form open foraging trails, and my bet is that those species would be great candidates for this role.
Article Ancient Termite Pollinator of Milkweed Flowers in Dominican Amber
Hello Alexis; You might be particularly interested in communicating with Dr. Birgit Jauker. You can find her on ResearchGate. Best regards, Jim Des Lauriers
I reviewed this for the Asian tropics many years ago (attached). The key thing to remember is that many groups of insects - flies, beetles, cockroaches, and probably others - have both casual and specialist flower visitors, which may or may not pollinate the flowers they visit.
There are huge number of non-bee pollinators like butterflies, beetles and various others, i have also worked on this aspects in India for my master thesis.
Bees are important pollinators, and since many of them are generalist pollinators, they may play the main pollination role in some ecosystems. However, some important groups of flowers are pollinated by non-bee visitors. Many of them do not fit the bee-style visitation and therefore are totally depended on their non-bee pollinators. Butterfly flowers may have too deep corolla, which fit the very long butterfly proboscis; Fly flowers usually have an open corolla and too concentrated nectar that fit the flies' tongue; Bat flowers of the new world, and many hawk-moths' flowers open for the night; Many birds' flowers don't fit bee pollination; The Mediterranean beetle flowers present big-red-open corolla that is not attractive for the bees. Also there are specialist non-bee pollinators, like the small wasps of the genus Ficus or the small beetles of the oil palms, and more. Lot of literature is available.
Hi - I like the curiosity aspect of this. Why not just do the study? I mean, doing a study for curiosity sake is a great thing. While you are doing it doubtless you will read the literature and learn more. Chances are the study has never been done in your time and place, and new variation will emerge.
I studied avocado pollinators, bees and non-bees, in their native land Central America and out of America. I investigated the avocado visitors' behavior, pollen carrying and pollination effectiveness. There are more works like mine, studying non-bee pollinators of various plant species.
Please see in : Pollinators of Avocado Chapter, Full-text available, January 2002
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