Insects and Society

Pollination is the transfer or placing the correct pollen grain (the male gametophyte) onto the receptive stigma (female portion of plant) of a flower, allowing sexual reproduction. Insects pollinate approximately 80% of the flowering plants in temperate regions. A wide range of food crops, including apples, strawberries, melons, and squash are among those that depend upon insect pollination.

Humans plant flowers in their gardens to see the diversity of the flowers' colors and shapes. They will also see pollinators in action. In the forests and on hiking trails, naturalists and hikers enjoy wildflowers, which insect pollinators frequent as well. The different colors and shapes exhibited by flowers attract a variety of insects.

To humans these differences have an aesthetic value, but to pollinators these shapes and colors mean survival. Some insects use the variations in shape or color to find their way to the food source. Insects do not just pollinate flowers; they actually feed on nectars provided by flowering plants and in many cases eat some of the pollen produced by flowers. Thus the plant gets pollinated and the insect gets food: a mutally beneficial relationship.