Bees are one of the most well-known pollinator animals in the world. One-third of food plants for humans are bee pollinated (an industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars)

Commonly known bee species are bumblebees and honey bees. A number of our local bees are solitary meaning they survive on their own rather than in a large colony. Something people do to help bees is to put up a mason bee house in their yard, but this can actually harm solitary bees as it forces them together when they are better on their own.

There is popular fear of bees because they sting, but many can only sting once in a lifetime because it kills them to do it, so it is only a last resort to protect their hive.

Bees drink nectar through a long tube shaped tongue called proboscis. It is short compared to butterflies and moths, so many bees have to crawl into the flower to drink the nectar which covers their whole body in pollen

Some bees favor certain plants that they know are high nectar producers. Other plants that bees don’t favor as much are instead pollinated by moths who aren’t as picky.

Butterflies and moths do not pollinate deliberately. They feed on nectar produced by flowers by landing on the plant and using their long proboscis to reach into the flower. This collects pollen on their feet and legs, which is then transferred to the next plant they land on.

When it is time to have babies, butterflies and moths lay an egg on a plant while feeding on nectar so the caterpillar has an immediate food source once it hatches.

Butterflies need a wide, flat place to land and feed so larger open flowers in bright colours like orange, red, yellow, pink, purple and white are most appealing to them

Many butterflies are prey to larger insects and birds. To protect themselves many are bright colours to alert a predator they are poisonous to avoid getting eaten. Others have spots or stripes on their wings which can distract a predator

Moths were long overlooked as a pollinator, but new research has shown they pollinate more than bees and butterflies and some have a proboscis as long as a hummingbird’s beak.

There are around 160,000 moth species worldwide, compared to 18,000 butterfly species. Moths usually prefer white, pale and light coloured flowers.

Many moths pollinate in a similar way to butterflies, by landing on the outside of a flower and drinking nectar through their proboscis. Some species have wings that beat rapidly like a hummingbird allowing them to hover over the flower rather than land.

Some moths fly during daytime, but most are nocturnal, or night flying. Many flowers open at night for these nocturnal moths to pollinate them and also produce sweet smells to attract moths who rely on touch and smell over eyesight.

According to BBC “wasps are badly in need of a change in public opinion. As well as having fascinating lives, they are extremely important in the environment and face problems similar to those of […] bees”

The wasps we are most familiar with are called social wasps. They live in a colony of hundreds or thousands consisting of workers who create a nest and gather food, and a queen who produces eggs. Social wasps are predators, feeding on other insects which is important in keeping those insect populations under control. BBC estimates social wasps can consume 14 million kilograms of insects in a single summer.

Wasps are extremely attracted to sweets, which is why they are considered a pest to humans as they target sweet foods and drinks. They also use a proboscis to drink nectar from flowers, which they can then regurgitate to produce honey.

Wasps are not as fuzzy as bees so not as much pollen sticks to their bodies, but they aren’t as picky eaters and will pollinate from a wider variety of flowers. They also seem to be more resilient in urban areas which is more important for their survival and that of the plants we rely on.

Hummingbirds are indigenous to and only found in North and South America. There are 338 species of hummingbirds, 5 of which are found in BC. Greater Victoria sees the Rufous Hummingbird during spring and summer before it migrates for winter in Mexico, and the Anna’s Hummingbird which has recently been seen here year round.

Due to the migratory range of our local hummingbirds, they are very important to the survival of the west coast ecosystem. They are warm blooded which means they can handle cold climates in winter and early spring. The salmonberry is a west coast plant pollinated by hummingbirds which is an important food source for wolves and bears to survive on until salmon arrive.

Hummingbirds main food source is flower nectar which is high energy food, but they also eat spiders and insects which provide protein. Hummingbirds seen “darting” mid-flight are often catching insects.

Many plats have adapted and evolved to attract hummingbirds overtime as they are an important pollinator species, visiting one to three thousand flowers a day. Hummingbird pollinated plants usually produce much less sugar than plants pollinated by insects.

Anna’s Hummingbird’s start breeding at the end of January, and Rufous in late March, early April. Females do all the work of nest building (called a “clutch”), mind the eggs and caring for the young. Usually two eggs are laid at a time, but many are lost to predators. Eggs take about two weeks to hatch, and newborns take about two weeks to fledge. Breeding continues into May, so hummingbird parents may have more than one clutch each year.

Females tend to live longer. Average age is 3-4 years, but some have been known to live 8 to 12 years. Domestic cats are a very big threat to hummingbirds and other small native birds.

In warm climates like the Pacific Islands, Southeast Asia and Africa, bats are very important pollinators. They are critical for the survival of a number of plants in the American Southwest.

Much like with bees, pollen sticks to a bat’s furry face and body when it drinks nectar from a plant. The pollen is then transferred to other flowers the bat travels to.

Pollinator bats are generally drawn to tube-shaped, high-nectar fruit-fragrant flowers that bloom at night. It is estimated that more than 500 plants including more than 300 food-producing plants rely on bat pollination to survive. This includes peaches, bananas, cashews and cocoa. Bat pollination helps increase plants resistance to pests and disease.

Bats can travel farther than insects, which gives them an advantage as a pollinator. Some Puerto Rican bats can transfer pollen 800 meters between trees, and species in Brazil can transport pollen up to 18 kilometers.

Bat pollination also has an important economic benefit. The agave is a bat-pollinated fruit which supplies the multimillion dollar tequila industry. It is estimated that bats and agave are so interrelated that bat population success can be dependent on agave survival success and vice versa.

Similarly, four species of cactus in Venezuela have evolved their size and shape to better accommodate and attract the bat pollinators.

Urbanization, deforestation, invasive species and other factors are threatening the survival of agave and cactus in desert regions. Subsequently, the bats who rely on them are also under threat and many are considered at risk or endangered.

A large number of other bird and insect species around the world are pollinators

Fruit eating mammals, like lemurs in Madagascar, pollinate by pulling apart flower bracts and putting their face deep inside to eat. Pollen stick to their fur and is transferred to the next plant. The ruffed lemur is the primary pollinator of the traveler’s palm tree. They also help the ecosystem by spreading seeds across large regions in their feces.

The largest pollinator in the world might surprise you: Giraffes.

Giraffes eat high growing leaves and flowers on savannah trees, like the 60 foot high acacia tree, and travel up to 20 hours a day looking for food. As with other furry pollinators, pollen gets stuck to their head and transfers from tree to tree.

There are also 40 species of reptiles - lizards, geckos, snakes - who are believed to assist in pollination (Klehm)

Brazil’s Noronha Skink climbs inside flowers to drink nectar, and pollen sticks to its scales transferring to other flowers. In 2019 the Drakensberg crab lizard was identified as the first known lizard pollinator in Africa. A study found it to be the “sole pollinator” of a flower found in a World Heritage Site in South Africa and Lesotho .

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https://meadowia.com/moths-are-important-pollinators/

https://animals.howstuffworks.com/insects/moths-as-pollinators.htm

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-41042948

https://wildlifewelcome.com/butterflies/are-butterflies-pollinators/

https://klehm.org/mammals-and-reptiles/#:~:text=It%20is%20believed%20that%20around%2040%20reptile%20species%2C,since%20the%20tree%20blooms%20during%20the%20dry%20season.

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