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Many insects of small to modest size benefit from feeding on pollen of suitable plants; pollen tends to be rich in protein, plentiful in season and easily available. Many plants, such as some members of the Araceae and Zamiaceae , produce large amounts of nutritious pollen, while producing little or no nectar.
The term pollen source is often used in the context of beekeeping and refers to flowering plants as a source of pollen for bees or other insects. Bees collect pollen as a protein source to raise their brood. For the plant, the pollinizer, this can be an important mechanism for sexual reproduction, as the pollinator distributes its
Some plants that are wind pollinated have vestigial nectaries, and other plants like common heather that are regularly pollinated by insects, produce clouds of pollen and some wind pollination is inevitable. The hoary plantain is primarily wind pollinated, but is also visited by insects which pollinate it. [14]
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 family Oedemeridae is a cosmopolitan group of beetles commonly known as false blister beetles, though some recent authors have coined the name pollen-feeding beetles. There are some 100 genera and 1,500 species in the family, [ 1 ] mostly associated with rotting wood as larvae, though adults are quite common on flowers.
Brassicogethes aeneus, the common pollen beetle, is a species of pollen beetle in the family Nitidulidae. Other common names include the rape pollen beetle and rape blossom beetle. [1] [2] It was previously known as Meligethes aeneus. [3] It is found in Europe and Northern Asia (excluding China) and North America. [2]
It's National Pollinator Week, which calls to mind bees swarming the garden. But there's another, more disgusting, insect that's just as important.
Beetles of species that specialise in eating pollen, nectar, or flowers themselves, may be important cross-pollinators of some plants such as members of the Araceae and Zamiaceae, that produce prodigious amounts of pollen. Others, for example the Hopliini, specialise on flowers of Asteraceae and Aizoaceae.