Post on 09-Mar-2021
Bumblebee
Bombus sp.
Western honey bee
Apis mellifera
Important pollinator, robust, hairy and
with a long proboscis (similar to a trunk). There are plants that are
pollinated only by this insect.
It recognizes flowers by smell and colour, preferring white, blue, lilac and yellow. Need a landing pad or large petals, often with guides to the nectar. It is a universal pollinator,
but very threatened...
Marmalade hoverfly
Episyrphus balteatus
White spotted rose beetle
Oxythyrea funesta
Pollinates open, wide flowers, with space to land and nectar with easy access. Send wasps
and bees to ward off predators.
Likes big, open flowers, and does not require airstrips. It feeds on pollen grains and parts of flowers.
Tobacco hornworm
Manduca sexta
Dark long-tongued bat
Lichonycteris obscura
It has a very long spirotromba (similar to a trunk that unfolds, becoming like a straw that sucks
nectar) and has night activity.
Like other bat species, it feeds on insects, nectar and pollen from strong, large flowers at night. Has a long tongue to reach the
bottom of the floral tubes.
Pollinating wasps Família Agaonidae
Common fruit fly
Drosophila sp.
It enters through the small holes between the scales of this ‘fruit’, pollinates it and produces tiny fruits inside. After laying eggs, females
die inside, and so do males.
It is the intense smell of very ripe or rotten fruit that attracts this insect.
Monarch butterfly
Danaus plexippus
Wasp
Argogorytes mystaceus
Likes bright, long-coloured flowers or tube-shaped and often with nectar guides. Need a location to land while
feeding.
It is deceived by a plant whose flower has a very familiar smell...
Colibri
Colibri sp.
Yucca moth
Tegeticula yuccasella
Common pollinator of red flowers or bright colours. Hover next to the big flowers to suck the nectar with
your adapted tongue.
Carefully pollinates the plant to provide the birth of seeds, which are the exclusive food of their larvae.
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Fly orchid
Ophrys insectifera
Gum rockrose
Cistus ladanifer
The flowers resemble a specific insect and even its smell is similar to a female. The male is attracted to this odor and performs mating movements. It is at this time that pollination occurs.
Open flowers, with spots on the petals that serve as a landing strip, indicating the
direction of the nectar.
Jimsonweed
Datura sp.
Century plant
Agave sp.
The flowers open in the late afternoon, being pollinated by an insect with nocturnal activity. The nectaries are
hidden in the bottom of the flower.
The flowers open only at night and give off a smell of rotten fruit to attract night pollinators.
Pinus pinaster
Pinus pinaster
Yucca
Yucca sp.
The pollen grains are large and light, leaving the ground all yellow around the trees.
The position of the stamens implies that the plant depends on a small insect to collect the pollen and transport it to the
stylets, ensuring its fruiting.
Rosemary
Rosmarinus officinalis
Rye
Secale cereale
It has blue flowers, with nectar guides and airstrips that
facilitate the work of pollinators.
The stamens, full of pollen grains, are 'in position' waiting for their pollinator.
West Indian Lantana
Lantana camara
Aristolochia baetica
Aristolochia baetica
It has colourful and tubular flowers. Produces a large amount of néctar…
The flower emits a smell similar to rotten fruit, manure or rotten meat, attracting insects to its interior. The shape of the flower traps
the insects that, when trying to leave, take the pollen with them.
Common fig
Ficus carica
Southern magnolia
Magnolia grandiflora
Behind the sweetness of this fruit is a life cycle that involves a specific insect. Without this symbiosis there were no figs, which
means that the figs bring 'toast’...
Its large, open flowers do not produce nectar and do not have an airstrip (which confuses some insects, such as bees). The insects that
seek them feed on pollen and parts of the flower.
Hibiscus
Hibiscus sp.
Strelitzia
Strelitzia sp.
It produces large, red flowers that attract a fast daytime pollinator.
The bright colors of your flowers attract daytime pollinators in search of their nectar. It resembles a small
colored bird.
Snapdragon
Antirrhinum majus
Dedaleira Lady's glove
Digitalis purpurea
The entrance to the flower is closed and only strong and heavy insects can open it and reach the nectar.
It has oval flowers, with nectaries hidden inside. Only insects of the right size are able to reach the nectar, getting 'polluted'
from pollen when they enter the flower.