Wednesday, September 4, 2024

Bees' monolecty

Some bees have been painstakingly observed to forage from a very limited range of flowers, known as "oligolecty," or "monolecty" if it's truly a single species, which is apparently debatable.  

This seems to me to be very expensive for the bee (more travel for less nectar than random opportunistic foraging,) with little benefit, yet very valuable for the plant requiring no effort, except maybe co-evolution of the plant to favor that bee species, which isn't really much "effort." 

What evolutionary drive is there for this specific foraging? Is it just that in foraging a specific species they would become "expert" faster, recognizing which flowers have the most yield of how to get the most pollen and nectar efficiently? 

A brief review of monolecty in bees and benefits of a broadened definition. 2020

On a realted note, this story of a specific hummingbird and a specific flower co-evolving to benefit each other is equally remarkable. 
https://youtu.be/7xRxpicxeFQ?si=_kpTdjXXBhZwE47l

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