Pollen-feeding behavior of diverse insects on Geranium delavayi, a flower with large, accessible pollen grains.

PREMISE
Why have pollen grains evolved to be exceptionally large in some species? Pollen feeding hypothesis suggests that if the proportion of pollen amounts for feeding is reduced in a flower, the low allocation to pollen number would allow pollen grains to be larger.


METHODS
To examine whether species with large pollen grains experience low pollen consumption, the behavior of insects feeding on nectar and pollen was observed and pollen transfer efficiency was estimated for four visitor types in Geranium delavayi. To see whether bees actively collected pollen, the numbers of grains in pollen baskets and on the body were compared. Both nutritional value (total protein and lipid) and chemical defense (phenolic metabolites) in pollen against pollen feeders were measured.


RESULTS
Bumblebees and honeybees foraged for nectar, rarely groomed pollen into corbiculae, and had > 5× higher pollen transfer efficiency than smaller solitary bees and flies, which were pollen eaters that removed more pollen but deposited less. Pollen grains were characterized by low protein and high lipid content with a low protein-lipid ratio, an unfavorable combination for bumblebees. Three secondary metabolites were significantly higher in pollen grains (7.77 mg/g) than in petals (1.08 mg/g) and in nectar (0.44 mg/g), suggesting stronger chemical defense in pollen.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results indicated that large bees took nectar but little of the nutritionally poor and highly toxic pollen. These data support one prediction of the pollen feeding hypothesis, that species with few and large pollen grains would also have low pollen consumption rates. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.