Bees and Hoverflies Gobble False Pollen, Profiting Both Insect and Plant

Research suggests pollinators, like bees and hoverflies, find the fake pollen of at least one orchid species delicious.

Orchids are among the most untrustworthy flowering plants on the earth. Lots of species fool pollinators into helping them reproduce.

Some release sex pheromones that captivate male insects, whereas others make phony pollen to tempt bees and other pollinators with the assurance of a meal.

Real pollen vs pseudopollen

Scientists have now shown that this pseudopollen is not simply an attractive imitation: It is as nutritious as the real thing.

The job is “an advance” for the field, states Kevin Davies, a botanist and specialist in orchid anatomy at Cardiff University who was not incorporated with the study. He claims that this is the first time scientists could reveal that pseudopollen is not simply fool’s gold.

Like the majority of orchids, Cypripedium wardii does not generate edible pollen. The species– native to China and Tibet and identified by slipper-shaped peppermint blossoms- must utilize other methods to lure its insect pollinators.

Its flowers do not provide nectar, nor do they seem to have an appealing scent. Instead, their lips are dusted with a powder developed by tiny hairs that break off, covering the surface; it looks like natural pollen.

Numerous types of orchids generate this pseudopollen. Some have lipids, carbohydrates, and proteins. Others have no nutrients in any way. Though the compound was first explained more than 100 years ago, scientists did not know whether insects consumed it.

Are bugs being tricked?

In the new research, researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences observed 12 species of singular bee and hoverfly, harmless relatives of the insects that swarm our rubbish, collecting pseudopollen from C. wardii orchids in the forested mountains of Sichuan province.

The scientists captured a few pests and carried them back to their lab for dissection. Cutting into the little corpses, they discovered fragments of pseudopollen moving through their digestive tracts, as reported last month on the preprint server bioRxiv. The particles’ analysis revealed that they contained lipids, indicating their nutritional value.

“This is the initial time we have confirmed that pseudopollen is an actual reward,” claims co-author Luo Yi-Bo.

Are the bugs being tricked? Rodrigo Singer, a botanist who examines orchid pollination at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, does not think so. He thinks the bees and hoverflies sense that the pseudopollen is nutritious– so the orchids are not pulling a fast one on them.

In any case, Davies expects the findings will motivate scientists to examine the pseudopollen produced by other orchids to see whether it, too, might be consumed. Independently whether they deceive their guests, C. wardii orchids seem to have developed a clever method to guarantee that their flowers get fertilized.

Read the original article on Science.

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