Spring flowers have co-evolved with insect pollinators for a long time. The flowers require pollen delivery to set seed. To entice insects to visit and deliver the pollen, they produce food rewards ...

Using a mobile stamen to slap away insect visitors maximizes pollination and minimizes costs to flowers, a study shows. For centuries scientists have observed that when a visiting insect's tongue ...

Moths have long been seen as the annoying creatures that leave holes in your clothes. But new research suggests that those pesky insects have been badly misjudged. A new study, published this week in ...

Many plants, from crops to carnations, cannot bear fruit or reproduce without bees, beetles, butterflies and other insects to pollinate them. But the population of insect pollinators is dropping in ...

Insect pollination is a decisive process for the survival and evolution of angiosperm (flowering) plants and, to a lesser extent, gymnosperms (without visible flower or fruit). There is a growing ...

Through pollination and feeding on all parts of plants, insects influence which plants thrive, which struggle, and even ...

We tend to think of plants as passive, vulnerable actors. But in their partnership with insects, it’s plants that often play the leading role. Sometimes, this can get pretty surprising. As evening ...

Chris Wyver is a PhD student at the University of Reading. He receives funding from the Waitrose Collaborative Training Partnership and BBSRC. Laura Reeves works for the University of Reading. she ...

It can be hard to get bees to do their vital work in indoor farms or greenhouses. Instead, the plants may need a little robotic assistance to reproduce. Out in a field, tomato plants are pollinated ...

There are five social species of bumble bees (Bombus spp.) native to Florida, and each is an important pollinator throughout the state. Although European honeybees make up about 85 percent of our ...