Studies on pollination networks have provided valuable information on the number, frequency, distribution and identity of interactions between plants and pollinators. However, little is still known on the functional effect of these interactions on plant reproductive success. Information on the extent to which plants depend on such interactions will help to make more realistic predictions of the...

The aim of this study was to determine the relative effects of landscape-scale management intensity, local management intensity and edge effect on diversity patterns of insect-pollinated vs. non-insect pollinated forbs in meadows and wheat fields. Nine landscapes were selected differing in percent intensively used agricultural area (IAA), each with a pair of organic and conventional winter whea...

Hybridization between closely related species is relatively common in angiosperms and can create a natural hybrid zone. We review recent experimental studies of floral biology in pairs of hybridizing species, emphasizing comparisons of the floral morphology and nectar rewards of hybrid plants with that of their progenitors, and quantifying the influence of these floral traits on pollinator beha...

Pollination in the species of Ceropegia juncea Wight (Apocynaceae: Ceropegiae) in Southern India is discussed based on observation from ex situ grown plants. The study confirmed pollinators are small, mostly female Dipteran flies, ca 3 mm long, which carry pollinaria on the proboscis. The most important factors for an insect to effect pollination appear to be the appropriate overall size, mouth...

Variation in pollinator composition at the individual plant level is an important prerequisite for plant specialization on pollinators that does not seem to have been investigated previously. I studied variation in pollinator composition in a southeastern Spanish population of the insect-pollinated shrub Lavandula latifolia (Labiatae) and examined its correlates, with particular reference to th...

Warmer springs advance many phenological events, including flowering time in plants and the flight time of insects. Pollination by insects, an ecosystem service of immense economic and conservation importance, depends on synchrony between insect activity and flowering time. If plants and their pollinators show different phenological responses to climate warming, pollination could fail. Informat...

Pollination is a key ecosystem service as many crops but in particular, fruits and vegetables are partially dependent on pollinating insects to produce food for human consumption. Here we assessed how pollination services are delivered at the European scale. We used this assessment to estimate the relative contribution of wild pollinators to crop production. We developed an index of relative po...

The pollination of Cypripedium plectrochilum Franch. was studied in the Huanglong Nature Reserve, Sichuan, China. Although large bees (Bombus, Apis), small bees (Ceratina, Lasioglossum), ants (Formica sp.), true flies (Diptera) and a butterfly were all found to visit the flowers, only small bees, including three Lasioglossum spp. (L. viridiclaucum, L. sichuanense and L. sp.; Halictidae) and one...