Pollinators 5th semester Bsc Ag OUAT.pptx
- 1. Pollinators
- 2. Without the actions of pollinators, agricultural economies, our food supply, and surrounding landscapes would collapse. • Birds, bats, bees, butterflies, beetles, and other small mammals that pollinate plants are responsible for bringing us food. • Sustain our ecosystems and produce our natural resources by helping plants reproduce. • Pollinating animals travel from plant to plant carrying pollen on their bodies that allows the transfer of genetic material critical to the reproductive system of most flowering plants • Bring us countless fruits, vegetables, and nuts, ½ of the world’s oils, fibers and raw materials • Prevent soil erosion • Increase carbon sequestration
- 3. What is pollination? When a pollen grain moves from the anther (male part) of a flower to the stigma (female part), pollination happens. This is the first step in a process that produces seeds, fruits, and the next generation of plants. This can happen through self-pollination, wind and water pollination, or through the work of vectors that move pollen within the flower and from bloom to bloom.
- 4. Who are the pollinators? • Birds, bats, butterflies, moths, flies, beetles, wasps, small mammals, and most importantly, bees are pollinators. • They visit flowers to drink nectar or feed off of pollen and transport pollen grains as they move from spot to spot.
- 5. Why are pollinators important? • Somewhere between 75% and 95% of all flowering plants on the earth need help with pollination • They need pollinators. • Pollinators provide pollination services to over 180,000 different plant species and more than 1200 crops. • If we want to talk dollars, pollinators add 217 billion dollars to the global economy, and honey bees alone are responsible for between 1.2 and 5.4 billion dollars in agricultural productivity in the United States. • In addition to the food that we eat, pollinators support healthy ecosystems that clean the air, stabilize soils, protect from severe weather, and support other wildlife [
- 7. WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THEIR STATUS •Pollinator populations are changing. • Many pollinator populations are in decline and this decline is attributed most severely to a loss in feeding and nesting habitats. • Pollution, the misuse of chemicals, disease, and changes in climatic patterns are all contributing to shrinking and shifting pollinator populations.
- 8. Type of Pollination Insect Pollinators Characteristics Myrmecophily Ants Flowers often close to the ground; nectar contains sugar and amino acids, sometimes with chemicals to deter other insects. Melittophily Bees Brightly colored flowers (often blue, purple, or yellow), strong fragrance, nectar guides, UV patterns. Psychophily Butterflies Bright, colorful flowers, often red, pink, or orange; flowers are usually open during the day with a tubular shape. Phalaenophily Moths White or pale flowers, strong night-time fragrance, and tubular shapes; often open at night. Sapromyophily Flies Flowers mimic rotting flesh or dung; produce foul odors; often dark in color. Cantharophily Beetles Flowers are usually large, dull-colored, and have strong scents; often produce lots of pollen. Ornithophily Birds (e.g., Hummingbirds) Brightly colored flowers, often red; little to no fragrance; nectar abundant.
- 9. INSECT POLLINATORS: •Bees carry an electrostatic charge which help pollen grains adhere to their bodies • In most bees a structure known as the scopa, is on the hind legs or the lower abdomen (e.g., of megachilid bees) •. Honey bees, bumblebees do not have a scopa, but the hind leg is modified into a structure called the corbicula also known as the "pollen basket". •Honey bees travel from flower to flower, collecting nectar (later converted to honey), and pollen grains. • As the bee flies from flower to flower, some of the pollen grains are transferred onto the stigma of other flowers. •Honey bees are the most important commercial pollinating agents, but many other kinds of pollinators, from blue bottle flies, to bumblebees, orchard mason bees, and leaf cutter bees are cultured and sold for pollination.
- 10. • Insects other than Bees which are pollinators •Many insects other than bees do pollination. •Males of some predatory wasps, depends on nectar causing pollination. •Pollen wasps gather pollen for feeding their larvae, carried internally and regurgitated into a mud chamber prior to oviposition act as pollinators •Many bee flies, are adapted to pollinating plants with narrow, deep corolla tubes, with remarkably long probosis. •Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) also pollinate plants •Various moths are important pollinators of commercial crops such as tobacco. •Orchids Angraecum sesquipedale, dependant on a particular hawk moth, •Various midges and thrips are comparatively minor pollinators. •Ants also pollinate some kinds of flowers •Hoverflies are important pollinators of flowering plants worldwide. Often hoverflies are considered to be the second most important pollinators after wild bees.
- 11. Bumble bee, Bombus spp Order: Hymenoptera, Family: Apidae • The bumble bee is an excellent pollinator, which involves transferring grains of pollen containing reproductive cells between male and female flower parts. • The bumble bee can fly in cool temperatures and a single one can pollinate up to 5,000 plants in a day. • This makes it among the busiest. • In recent years, the population of bumble bees has declined by more than a quarter. • Expanding bee habitat by planting organic gardens and pollinator-friendly corridors is one important way to support them.
- 12. Carpenter Bee, Xylocopa spp Order: Hymenoptera Family: Apidae • Robust dark bluish bee with hair body. • Dorsum of abdomen bare, pollen basket is absent. • Adults are good pollinators. • They constructs galleries in wood and store honey and pollen
- 13. Digger Bee, Anthopharal spp. Family: Anthophoridae Order: Hymenoptera • Stout, hairy pollen collecting bees. • Abdomen with black and blue bands.
- 14. • Wasps belong to the same order as bees but, unlike bees, are not covered in fuzzy little hairs, which makes them less efficient at moving pollen. • Still, many are good pollinators, including the fig wasp, pollen wasp, common wasp, and European wasp. • Even wasps not well known for their pollinating powers can be helpful to organic gardeners because they can keep pests in check. • While some wasps deliver a powerful sting, most are of the solitary, non-stinging variety.
- 15. Fig wasp Blastophaga psenes Family: Agaonidae Order: Hymenoptera • Fig is pollinated by fig wasp only • There is no other mode of pollination
- 16. • Butterflies are found on every continent except Antarctica. • Though less efficient than bees, they play a critical part in transferring pollen among crops, including cilantro, cabbage, broccoli, sage, and chamomile. • Butterfly populations have seen a drastic decline over the past few decades with the loss of hospitable habitats for them to feed, grow, and find cover.
- 17. Sphingid moth • Some moths flit about during the day but many are nocturnal, and new research suggests moths play a vital role in pollinating a wide range of flowers and plants overnight. • They also appear to pollinate flowers that honey bees may skip for not having enough nectar. • Since most of the research done on pollinators focuses on bees and butterflies, scientists are still trying to figure out the precise importance of moths for our food system.
- 18. • Most people are familiar with the pest-eating powers of the ladybug—an organic gardener’s best friend Less well known is that beetles often play a powerful role as pollinator. • While some species truly are pests, and eat through flowering plants and leaves, beetles are so numerous they pollinate 88% of the 240,000 flowering plants around the world. • Hard-working beetle pollinators include soldier beetles, jewel beetles, blister beetles, long-horned beetles, checkered beetles, tumbling flower beetles, soft-winged flower beetles, scarab beetles, sap beetles, false blister beetles, and rove beetles. The soldier beetle is among the hardest working pollinators in the beetle world
- 19. Oil Palm Pollinating weevil Elaeidobius kamerunicus Family: Curculionidae Order: Coleoptera • This insect aids in increasing oil palm bunch weight by 35% and oil content by 20%
- 20. Syrphid fly, Syrphus spp Family : Syrphidae Order: Diptera • Brightly coloured flies • Body is stripped or branched with yellow or blue. • It resembles bee or wasp. • Larval stage is predatory and stage is good pollinator.
- 21. • While flies can be a nuisance, many of them pollinate plants. Chocolate, for example, is pollinated primarily by gnats. • Other notable plants pollinated by flies include pears, apples, strawberries, parsley, and carrots, and many more. • In fact, more than 100 crops depend on fly pollination to produce fruit and seeds. The hoverfly is among the most efficient, but other top fly pollinators include some carrion and dung flies, tachinid flies, bee flies, small-headed flies, March flies, and blowflies. The bee fly Order: Diptera