Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Any examples of pollen robbers, i.e, animals which consume nectar & pollen without bringing about pollination?

As stated earlier by another contributor, the consumption of pollen from a flower would not be beneficial for the plant, however their are recorded animals that do eat pollen. now their are some benefits that are documented such as pollen distributing from deification however this is inconclusive.

"New World" Bats (example: south American fruit bats).

Lorikeets and some species of parrots.

some Bees and small flies do as well.



Short, any animal that does eat nectar will consume some pollen. however Bats are the best answer to the question since they are not implemented directly in pollination.

Any examples of pollen robbers, i.e, animals which consume nectar %26amp; pollen without bringing about pollination?
This is very rare, if even non-existent in nature, as most plants adapt to make sure that the animal utilizing the pollen gets some of it on them to fertilize other plants. Hummingbirds might be the only example I can think of, since not every flower they eat from has adapted to use them as pollinators, but I'm not aware of any animal that has adapted to specifically NOT get pollen on them.



Perhaps invasive insects like tent worms that consume the nectar along with the rest of the tree?
Reply:Any creature that gets pollen on it and then moves to a new flower causes pollenation to occur (even if it is only in small amounts).



So I guess the answer would be that only animals which use the pollen from just one flower and then stop eating would be "robbers".


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