"..even the insects in my path are not loafers, but have their special errands". – Henry David Thoreau, 1906

1. BIOTIC
RELATIONSHIPS
Part 3 Some striking
examples of … pollination

2. 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

3. 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

4. What’s got Venus to do with pollination?
Bull’s-eye absorbing pattern of a modest cucumber
flower (Cucumis sativus)

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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.

10. Banging in the wrong kingdom – deceitful
hammer orchids and thynnid wasps
A male thynnid wasp (Thynnidae) mating the Drakaea
gracilis dummy female, Western Australia

11. 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)

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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)

15. 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

16. 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

17. By squeezing stamens tanagers (Thraupidae)
expel pollen and get a fructose reward
Yellow-throated tanager (Iridosornis analis) finding
food bodies on Axinaea confusa

18. 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

19. 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%

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

21. 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

22. Closing video: ‘The beauty of pollination’
That which is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good
for the bees – Marcus Aurelius

23. 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

24. 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

25. 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_pollinatin
g_flowers_bellows_mechanism_blows_pollen_from_stamen_onto.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqQbK0Ypk5M
https://vimeo.com/100131611

26. 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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