 Pollination
by bees is also referred as Melittophily or
hymenopterophly.
Melittophilous plants have sweetly scented
diurnal
flowers that
shed their pollen during the day when bees are active, they are
generally yellow or blue (rarely red), colours that bees can
easily see, they have good, strong landing platforms, and they
generally have
nectar
guides.
Bees travel from flower to flower, collecting
nectar
(converted to honey later), and in the process pick up
pollen
grains. The bee collects the pollen by rubbing against the
anthers. The
pollen collects on the hind legs, in dense hairs referred to as
a pollen basket. As the bee flies from flower to flower, the
pollen grains are transferred onto the
stigma of
the female flower part. Nectar provides the energy for bee
nutrition, pollen provides the protein. Furthermore, several
melittophilous flowers imitate the shapes and the sex perfumes
of female insects in order to attract the males that are the
pollinators. There might be as many as 40,000 species of l bees
that pollinate the majority of the 240,000
species of
flowering plants. As insects, bees are relatively intelligent
and are able to learn how to locate and operate particular
species of flowers that are in bloom at a particular time.
They are also relatively strong and are able to push their way
into complicated flowers that are not accessible to other
insects. |
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