Available


A macro image of an insect pollinating and feeding from a flower head.

Flowers exploit insects to achieve pollination; at the same time insects exploit flowers for food. It is a partnership. Each insect group has evolved different sets of mouthparts to exploit the food that flowers provide.

From the insects' point of view collecting nectar or pollen is rather like fitting a key into a lock; the mouthparts of each species can only exploit flowers of a certain size and shape.

Insect | Pollen | Flower | Yellow | Plant | Food | Beetle