Flowers Best Friends
So, who are these very important creatures? Mostly we are talking about insects: true there are some birds, bats and other small mammals, even a lizard. But the vast majority of pollinators are flying insects.
When we talk about pollinators the ones that come to mind are honey bees and butterflies, but there are also many other insects that perform this job for flowering plants, as well. There are flies, wasps, beetles and even some other insects that most people know nothing about, such as hemiptera and thrips. My favorite one is the one that pollinates the flowers of the cacao tree: a small fly, a midge, without which there would be no chocolate in this world. What a horrible thought!
It is to these very little known pollinators that I devote these pages, hoping that you learn to love them and to thank them as much as I do.
Con algunas fotos de polinizadores de Argentina.
Interesting facts, 2
Floral emissaries
Honey
Perils of pollinators
More references
For the answer, click here
For Children:
Heller, Ruth: The Reason for a Flower
Bennett, Paul: Pollinating a Flower
For Everybody:
Meeuse, Bastian and Sean Morris. The Sex Life of Flowers
Buchmann, Stephen L. and Gary Paul Nabhan:.1997. The Forgotten Pollinators
Shepherd, Mathew, Stephen L. Buchmann, Mace Vaughan and Scott Hoffman Black. 2003. Pollinator Conservation Handbook.
A Little more Technical
Proctor, Michael, Peter Yeo and Andrew Lack. 1996 The Natural History of Pollination
Barth, Friedrich G. 1996 Insects and Flowers. The Biology of a Partnership
Beyond Pollination (Also for Everybody)
Grissell, Eric. 2001. Insects and Gardens
Russell. Sharman Apt. 2001. Anatomy of a Rose
Hubbell, Susan. 1993. Broadsides from the Other Orders
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