Lmst

Not all flower visitors are equally helpful to the flower; separately tracking bees that buzz to release pollen and bees that steal pollen from flowers in a bunch of Chamaecrista species shows how tracking visitation alone would misrepresent the interactions

https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.70758

#science #ecology #pollination

Chamaecrista nictitans, one of the species in the study, a yellow flower framed by a pinnately compound leaf; photo by Cecelia Alexander, via Flickr

"A study published today in Science reveals that cycads, tropical plants that resemble palms, attract beetles using infrared radiation generated by their conelike reproductive structures. [...] [T]he results offer a window into “the earliest form of pollination”—a prototype for what is today one of the most transformative ecological interactions on Earth."

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/before-flowers-existed-ancient-cycad-plants-lured-insects-with-heat/

#Pollination #Plants #Cycads

Pollinators: Life, Biology and Threats by Shyamasree Ghosh & Dhriti Banerjee, 2025

This book explores the critical role of dipterans (flies) in global food production, plant reproduction, and ecological services. It highlights the diversity of pollinating dipterans worldwide, with a focus on their importance in India.

#books
#nonfiction
#pollination
#pollinators
#India
#Springer

Chapters cover key pollinator groups such as syrphid flies (hoverflies), thick-headed flies, bees (honeybees, bumblebees, solitary bees), and butterflies, explaining their impact on plant health and reproduction. Special attention is given to non-syrphid dipterans, which are vital in high-altitude and subarctic regions where bee populations are limited. The book also examines threats like climate change, habitat loss, land-use changes, and invasive species, along with recent research on insect immunity and antiviral defenses in honeybees. It is a valuable resource for researchers, academicians, and anyone interested in pollinators and their conservation.

An 8-year study of plants and pollinators in a Mediterranean community in southern Spain shows they're all flowering and active earlier as climate warms, but also a little less likely to overlap with interacting species

https://doi.org/10.1002/ecm.70046

#science #ecology #pollination #ClimateChange

A honeybee perched in the flower of a rosemary shrub, shown in very shallow focus; photo by Conall, on Flickr

Day 11 #artAdventCalendar The loggerhead shrike, endemic to North America, is also known as the butcherbird for its carnivorous tendencies and habit of ostentatiously displaying stored prey dramatically impaled on convenient spikes like tree thorns or barbed wire. Its usual prey are insects, amphibians, lizards, small birds or small mammals. 🧵
#linocut #printmaking #sciart #pollination #future #loggerheadShrike #shrike #wildlife #ManufacturedEcosystems #mastoArt

As described, my linocut print on 11”x 14” paper with a deckle edge shows a loggerhead shrike perched on a dark burgundy thorny honey locust branch on which a 4-winged small pollination drone is impaled. The signed print is titled “Loggerhead Shrike Will Impale but not eat drones”

Day 10 #artAdventCalendar A piece for Manufactured Ecosystems about the future of pollination about who decides what gets pollinated if humans and our devices are the only pollinators.

The definition of “weed” is usually pretty arbitrary and usually all sorts of native plants get caught up in our human biases. Milkweed is insanely popular with the pollinators in my garden and 🧵

#linocut #sciart #printmaking #pollination #future #milkweed #ecology #manufacturedEcosystems #mastoArt

My linocut print on Arches paper with a deckle edge shows a common milkweed plant on collaged washi papers in green and plum overprinted with magenta sans serif text “WE’RE NOT WEEDS” with the Robobee pollination drone in black on an angle inside the O. The little drone is a vertical shaft with a dot and two wings at the top and a tripod at the bottom.

Surveys of plant-pollinator interactions taken almost a century apart show how changing timing of flowering and pollinator activity in a warmer world is reshaping these mutualisms

https://doi.org/10.1086/738351

#science #ecology #pollination

🌱 𝗘𝗰𝗼𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀–𝗕𝗶𝗼𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗹 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗽𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 (Keynote speaker: Ivan Hiltpold, USA)

🏗️ 𝗘𝗰𝗼𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀–𝗦𝗼𝗶𝗹 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘀 (Keynote speaker: Jérôme Mathieu, France)

🌸 𝗘𝗰𝗼𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺𝘀 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀–𝗣𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 (Keynote Speaker: Jane Stout, Ireland)

👉 Join us at ECE2026: https://www.ece2026.org/

#ECE2026 #InsectsAsSolutions #Biomimetism #Bioinspiration #PhotonicMaterials #Sensory #InsectsAsFeedAndFood #EcosystemServices #Biocontrol #PestManagement #SoilManagement #Pollination

Day 5 of #artAdventCalendar - For the Manufactured Ecosystems art show about the future of pollination I looked at what nature-inspired technologies exist or are already proposed or that I could envision to pollinate plants, faced with a precipitous drop in pollinator numbers. But, I am also turned an artist’s eye to larger implications.

There are already researchers working on artificial pollination with tiny 🧵

#sciart #linocut #printmaking #pollination #pollinators #manufacturedEcosystems

My linocut print on 16” x 20” Arches paper with deckle edge with collaged washi paper of branches of pink cherry blossoms with a hummingbird clearwing moth in burgundy, sage green and black and a tiny black pollination drone called a Robobee. The drone has two wings, a vertical structure and tripod feet and is smaller than the moth.

Milkweed and Visitors — These vibrant milkweed flowers are attracting a busy group of insects. The flowers, likely *Asclepias* species, are a vital food source for pollinators and a crucial host plant for monarch butterfly larvae. The insects appear to be bracket fungi.

#Pollination #Flowers #Leaves #Milkweed #Asclepias #Vibrant #Natural #Insects #BracketFungi #Texas

Close-up of milkweed flowers and several black and yellow insects on green leaves.

Nice demonstration of different pollinator species "pulling" floral morphology in different directions for optimal pollen deposition, in two South African wildflower species

https://doi.org/10.1086/738374

#science #pollination #ecology #evolution

Figure 1 of the linked paper, with multiple panels showing different pollinators interacting with the flowers of the two wildflower species

We’ve made it to December so that means it’s time for #ArtAdventCalendar! I enjoy taking part and just sharing art every day and take the opportunity to go back over new work I made during the year.

Day 1. I am sharing the pollinator garden work which I made for my show about the future of pollination for Manufactured Ecosystems. 🧵

#printmaking #wildflowers #sciart #pollination #mastoArt #monarchButterfly #CanadaColumbine #ecosystems #linocut #bumblebee #manufacturedecosystems

As described this is a my collaged linocut pollinator garden artwork featuring a log, wildflowers and pollinators including: Canada goldenrod, purple coneflower, wild geraniums, wild columbine, common milkweed, black eyed susans, monarch butterflies, red-spotted purple butterfly, white underwing moth, Eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly, bumblebee, sweat bee, resin bee, large milkweed bug and milkweed leaf beetle.

🌼The “elephant trunk” of Pedicularis is not just decorative. It’s a pollen-dispensing mechanism shaped by pollinator-mediated selection. (9/9)

👉 https://doi.org/qf4q

#PlantScience #Pollination #EvoEco #BuzzPollination #Botany #PlantScience #AoBpapers

🎉 Great news! The paper ‘Ecological function of the ‘elephant trunk’ upper corolla in Pedicularis species’ in @AnnBot by Ze-Yu Tong and co-authors is now #free for 2 weeks 🧵(1/9)

👉 https://doi.org/qf4q

#PlantScience #Pollination #BuzzPollination #PlantScience #AoBpapers

Ecological function of the ‘elephant trunk’ upper corolla in Pedicularis species

Orchids are famous for specialized flowers that create species isolation by manipulating pollinators— but these ones don't have specialized pollinator relationships. Instead, they're isolated by pollen incompatibilities.

https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcaf271

#science #evolution #pollination #orchids

Flowers of the orchid Anacamptis papilionacea, pink and butterfly-shaped with wide darker wings; photo by Hans Hillewaert via Wikimedia Commons

Flowers of the orchid Anacamptis pyramidalis, lighter pink and with big lip-like labellums; photo by Ramin Nakisa via Wikimedia Commons

Flowers of the orchid Anacamptis morio hampe, purple with long nectar spurs and big lip-like labellums; photo by Didier Desouens, via Wikimedia Commons

🌸 Shiny flowers: easy to spot from afar, tricky up close! Researchers at @uniwue reveal how gloss attracts bumblebees but messes with color perception. #Biology #Pollination #Science
https://nachrichten.idw-online.de/2025/11/27/glossy-flowers-an-enticing-call-from-afar-a-mystery-up-close

While in São Paulo state it was great to take an opportunity to visit some fruit farms, exploring different crops and considering how they can play a role in diversified systems.

Obviously for me the strawberries were the main attraction. Fascinating seeing the different growing systems - Brazil has also gone in for fertigated tabletops, but uses substrates other than coir. Different pests - SWD present but not really a big issue, didn't really see mildew, but mites apparently present a challenge.

Pollination was very exciting - Brazil has a really vibrant culture of stingless bee management. Several dozen species being managed in different parts of the country. And they pollinate strawberries! As part of a mixed system, they could be very useful in supporting pollination of fruit crops. With the tiny species, maybe even cocoa - some studies suggest they could contribute?

#Strawberries #Horticulture #Pollination #IntegratedPestManagement #FruitCrops #StinglessBees

A red, ripe strawberry with a small fruit fly sitting on it. The fruit fly is orangey-brown and has distinctive black dots on its wing tips.

A white strawberry flower with a yellow centre set among foliage, and on the yellow centre there is a tiny bee (4mm long) with an orangey body and full pollen baskets.

A wooden box (c. 20 x 20 x 20cm) with a plastic funnel on the front, in a wooden alcove. On close inspection, the funnel has a wax chimney coming out, and all on the chimney and edge of the funnel are lots of tiny (c. 4mm long) slender bees.

For these two #sympatric Parnassia species, pre-pollination barriers play a more significant role in #reproductive isolation than post-#pollination barriers!

What does it all mean? Find out here!
https://doi.org/10.1111/jse.13184

@WileyEcolEvol
#PlantSci #JSE #flower #development #stamen #botany

In situ plant morphological images and flower close-ups of Parnassia wightiana and Parnassia amonena. Reproductive isolation components (pre- and post-pollination barriers) are listed, including ecogeography, phenology, stamen movement, pollinators, fruit set, seed production, and seed viability.

Nifty preprint with an experiment coevolving Brassica rapa with pollinating, herbivorous butterflies. With bumblebee co-pollinators or heat stress added, the plants evolved stronger anti-herbivore defense; with both bees and heat, they evolved... to attract butterflies?

https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.11.06.686912

#science #coevolution #pollination