BIOTIC RELATIONSHIPS

Part 3 Some striking examples of … pollination

CONTENTS

Do not forget opening video links

4 What’s got Venus to do with pollination? 5 Bees triggering cross pollination on sage (Salvia sp.)

flowers 6 Nothing easier than using the right frequency to release

the pollen 7 UV absorbing flavonoids and UV reflecting carotenoids

guide bees to nectar and pollen 8 Cross pollination is enhanced by the earlier bloom of the

male flowers 9 Orchids driving bees crazy - Long-horned bee

pseudocopulating with bee orchids 10 Banging in the wrong kingdom – deceitful hammer

orchids and thynnid wasps 11 Darwin predicted in 1862 the existence of Morgan’s

sphinx mot (Xanthopan morganii) 12 Male euglossine bees (Euglossini) collecting scent oils

may be trapped in a bucket orchid

CONTENTS

13 Pallid bat (Antrozous pallidus) visits cardon cacti (Pachycereus pringlei) before a scorpion meal

14 Straw-coloured fruit (Eidolon helvum) bats can’t resist the smell of the baobab blossom

15 Anna’s hummingbird (Calypte anna) assisting in pitcher sage (Salvia spathacea) pollination

16 Bees and hummingbirds carry positive charges provoking attraction of negative charged pollen

17 By squeezing stamens tanagers (Thraupidae) expel pollen like a bellow and get a fructose reward

18 Quarrel between a sugarbird (Promerops sp.) and a four-striped mouse (Rhabdomys pumilio)…

19 The inestimable value of bee pollination services 20 Global threat to the bees: the spread of Varroa destructor

and its deformed wing viral vectors 21 Norway has found a simple solution to save endangered

pollinaters by building a bee highway 22 Closing video: ‘The beauty of pollination’

23 – 26 Credits

What’s got Venus to do with pollination?

Bull’s-eye absorbing pattern of a modest cucumber

flower (Cucumis sativus)

Bees triggering cross pollination on sage (Salvia sp.) flowers

Using the wind to disseminate pollen is a very

inefficient way for flowers to spread their genes

Nothing easier than using the right frequency to release the pollen

South African carpenter bees and sea rose flowers

(Orphium frutescens) are in a unique symbiosis

UV absorbing flavonoids and UV reflecting carotenoids guide bees to nectar and pollen

These UV marks draw a bull’s-eye with a transient UV fluorescence indicating floral development

Some flowers have the petal equivalent to landing lights at airports to guide

airborne pollinators

Plants also use nectaries and floral

scents to attract pollinators

Orange coneflower (Rudbeckia fulgida)

Bidens ferulifolia

Cross pollination is enhanced by the earlier bloom of the male flowers

Seduced by the scent, it is executed by little sweat bees (Sarcophagidae) trapped overnight

Titan arum (Amorphophallus titanum)

The beige male flowers are located on top of the red female carpels

A towering spadix disperses perfume as it mimics a large animal carcass

Orchids driving bees crazy - Long-horned bee pseudocopulating with bee orchids

The bee gets some orchid pheromone helping to lure a

female – Ophrus apifera, Eucera sp.

Banging in the wrong kingdom – deceitful hammer orchids and thynnid wasps

A male thynnid wasp (Thynnidae) mating the Drakaea gracilis dummy female, Western Australia

Darwin predicted in 1862 the existence of Morgan’s sphinx mot (Xanthopan morganii)

The moth and flower co-evolved favouring plants with a long spur and moths with a long proboscis

Having received a specimen of what is now known as

Darwin’s orchid (Angraecum sesquipedale), it was only in

1903 that a population of the moth pollinating a flower with a spur a foot long was discovered in Madagascar

Moths retracting (b) and depositing (c) pollinaria

Male moth with remnant nectar from a former pollinaria transfer (d)

Male euglossine bees (Euglossini) collecting scent oils may be trapped in a bucket orchid

The bucket orchid (Coryanthes sp.) provides only one pollinaria-escape-route to the drowning bee

Pallid bat (Antrozous pallidus) visits cardon cacti (Pachycereus pringlei) before a scorpion meal

This newbie pollinates better than the lesser long nosed bat (Leptonycteris yerbabuenae) specialized for nectar-feeding

Straw-coloured fruit (Eidolon helvum) bats can’t resist the smell of the baobab blossom

These bats never mind hanging upside down looking for sweets of the ‘upside-down tree’ (Adansonia digitata)

Anna’s hummingbird (Calypte anna) assisting in pitcher sage (Salvia spathacea) pollination

Hummingbird flowers are shaded in red without UV reflection making them inconspicuous to most insects

Bees and hummingbirds carry positive charges provoking attraction of negative charged pollen

Flowers can use electric fields besides patterns in the UV spectrum, petal temperatures, textures and shapes

By squeezing stamens tanagers (Thraupidae) expel pollen and get a fructose reward

Yellow-throated tanager (Iridosornis analis) finding food bodies on Axinaea confusa

Quarrel between a sugarbird (Promerops sp.) and a four-striped mouse (Rhabdomys pumilio)…

… fighting for the nectar of Proteo obtusifolia – S.-Africa Photo: four-striped mouse pollinating Proteo humiflora

The inestimable value of bee pollination services

The vicinity of a forest or wild grasslands with native pollinators near crops can improve their yield by 20%

Global threat to the bees: the spread of Varroa destructor and its deformed wing viral vectors

Today only a few countries are unaffected – sanitary care and bee movement restrictions can limit infections

Norway has found a simple solution to save endangered pollinaters by building a bee highway

This world’s first ‘highway for bees’ will be a network of green zones of Oslo such as flower beds and gardens

Closing video: ‘The beauty of pollination’

That which is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good for the bees – Marcus Aurelius

CREDITS

4: https://dotsub.com/view/6bba17ef-9ab3-4002-ab19-2458afd901b1 http://thenaturegeek.blogspot.be/2012/04/wanted-single-white-flower-

seeking.html http://www.naturfotograf.com/UV_flowers_list.html 5: http://sciencesourcevideo.com/video/detail/bee-triggering-sage-

flower https://dotsub.com/view/6bba17ef-9ab3-4002-ab19-2458afd901b1

6: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpenter_bee https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGKK7BRQHVQ

7: http://www.naturfotograf.com/UV_flowers_list.html#top/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16983115

http://www.visualnews.com/2013/04/08/hidden-patterns-how-a-bee-sees-the-world-of-flowers/

8: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHaWu2rcP94 http://www.arkive.org/titan-arum/amorphophallus-titanum/image-

G8035.html 9: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFftHXbjEQA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophrys_apifera https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucera

CREDITS

10: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmgKABRCZpo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9dhcEW9-7c

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drakaea http://www.gdaywa.com/wildflowers/orchids/750/drakaea_gracilis_2.jpg

11: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMVN1EWxfAU https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angraecum_sesquipedale

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xanthopan_morgani http://www.lt-wasserthal.de/page8/page18/page18.html

12: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/wild/videos/an-orchids-trap/ http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/nine-ways-to-lure-a-

lover-orchid-style-21933475/?no-ist https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coryanthes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euglossini

13: http://news.ucsc.edu/2012/12/bat-pollinators.html https://vimeo.com/134290445 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pallid_bat

https://tosea.wordpress.com/2015/06/09/battle-of-the-baja-bats/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachycereus_pringlei

14: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adansonia_digitata https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw-coloured_fruit_bat

http://23thorns.com/2013/09/26/3112/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsTOLm0zF-Q

CREDITS

15: http://www.laspilitas.com/nature-of-california/plants/794--salvia-spathacea-powerline-pink http://www.laspilitas.com/movie-

players/628/native-plants/hummingbird-sage/salvia-spathacea-powerline-pink-hummingbird.m4v

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hummingbird 16:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c4/Electr

ostatic-Charge-on-Flying-Hummingbirds-and-Its-Potential-Role-in-Pollination-pone.0138003.s001.ogv/640px--Electrostatic-Charge-on-

Flying-Hummingbirds-and-Its-Potential-Role-in-Pollination-pone.0138003.s001.ogv.jpg

http://www.npr.org/2013/02/22/172611866/honey-its-electric-bees-sense-charge-on-flowers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wmrkXGurw4 17:http://www.slate.com/blogs/wild_things/2014/07/16/birds_pollinating_flowers_bellows_mechanism_blows_pollen_from_stamen_onto.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqQbK0Ypk5M https://vimeo.com/100131611

CREDITS

18: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cU1FTHtN-U https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhabdomys https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugarbird

http://www.colinpatersonjones.co.za/gallery3/index.php/150109CPJ98ed 19: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollination

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdfMkr1pXrM http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zg4dwmn

20: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8CA-iOrAyY https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varroa_destructor

21: http://collectivelyconscious.net/articles/norway-creates-worlds-first-bee-highway-to-save-endangered-pollinators/?utm_source=cc-articles3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xODhghc5GP0 22: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQiszdkOwuU

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