Palynivore
The category in its strictest application includes most bees, and a few kinds of wasps,[2] as pollen is often the only solid food consumed by all life stages in these insects.
Additionally, the list is expanded greatly if one takes into consideration species where either the larval or adult stage feeds on pollen, but not both.
[7] It is likely that a coevolution has occurred between plants and palynivores in a form of mutualism, or the process by which two species individually benefit from the activity of the other.
[8] Much of the evidence relating to palynivory evolution has been linked to a change in the structure of mandibular mouthparts, allowing for easier pollen collection.
[8] Based on the morphological features of fossil remnants of the era, early palynivores are hypothesized to have belonged to the diaphanopterodean, protorthopteran, and hemipteroid taxonomic groups.
[11][12][13] Following this period, evolution and more specialized adaptations in palynivore mouthparts and pollen or prepollen found in the gut of fossilized insects showed convergence into three major lineages: Orthoptera (grasshoppers, crickets, and locusts), Coleoptera, Diptera (flies), and Hymenoptera (wasps, sawflies, bees, and ants).
[8] Numerous species of insects (bees, wasps, ants, beetles, flies, butterflies, moths), mites, spiders, and birds consume pollen as a food source.
[14][15] To effectively collect, transport, and consume pollen, bees have evolved specialized morphological and behavioral traits.
[17] They gather and store pollen together with nectar on specialized hairs and evolved scopal or corbicular constructions on their bodies.
[18] Bees often favor certain foraging patches,[15] and while evidence shows that bumblebees for instance are flexible in their foraging patterns, deciding on different types of flowers based on the pollen's protein:lipid ratios,[16] these patterns directly influence the genetics of the flowering plant populations around them.
[15] Ants, as part of the order Hymenoptera, are related to bees and similarly forage outside of their nests to transport protein back for their offspring.
Because of the specialty of certain types of palynivores such as honey bees, their life cycles have adapted to be closely correlated with the flowering periods of certain species of plants.
[22] These observational studies have shown that this decline has been similarly mirrored in the populations of wild plants with which these bumblebees correspond.
[22] For many palynivores, especially colony insects such as bees and ants, suitable habitats are very important and must meet specific requirements.
[23] General palynivores must be located within flying distance of multiple different patches of floral plants each with their own flowering periods.
Climate change or global warming has resulted in higher average temperatures worldwide which has had significant repercussions on the foraging success of palynivores.
This rise can be attributed to the decrease in competition for these certain host plants as well as the general palynivore's ability to adapt to a changing food source.
There has been a general decline in plant and palynivore species diversity which is predicted to continue with the current trends in the release of greenhouse gasses and climate change.
