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Concept
Entomophily
Summary
Entomophily or insect pollination is a form of pollination whereby pollen of plants, especially but not only of flowering plants, is distributed by insects. Flowers pollinated by insects typically advertise themselves with bright colours, sometimes with conspicuous patterns (honey guides) leading to rewards of pollen and nectar; they may also have an attractive scent which in some cases mimics insect pheromones. Insect pollinators such as bees have adaptations for their role, such as lapping or sucking mouthparts to take in nectar, and in some species also pollen baskets on their hind legs. This required the coevolution of insects and flowering plants in the development of pollination behaviour by the insects and pollination mechanisms by the flowers, benefiting both groups. Both the size and the density of a population are known to affect pollination and subsequent reproductive performance.
The early spermatophytes (seed plants) were largely dependent on the wind to carry their pollen from one plant to another. Prior to the appearance of flowering plants some gymnosperms, such as Bennettitales, developed flower-like structures that were likely insect pollinated. Insects pollination for gymnosperms likely originated in the Permian period. Candidates for pollinators include extinct long proboscis insect groups, including Aneuretopsychid, Mesopsychid and Pseudopolycentropodid scorpionflies, Kalligrammatid and Paradoxosisyrine lacewings and Zhangsolvid flies, as well as some extant families that specialised on gymnosperms before switching to angiosperms, including Nemestrinid, Tabanid and Acrocerid flies. Living cycads have mutualistic relationships with specific insect species (typically beetles) which pollinate them. Such relationships extend back to at least the late Mesozoic, with both oedemerid beetles (which today are exclusively found on flowering plants) and boganiid beetles (which still pollinate cycads today) from the Cretaceous being found with preserved cycad pollen.
Official source
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