Honey Bees Pollination

620 Words3 Pages
What is the role of bees as pollinators? Most of the plants growing in our climate zone requires pollination by insects. For some species (even though they are self-pollinating) the presence of pollinators is beneficial, for a large group of plants pollination is necessary and yield depends on insects. Pollinating insects in the course of a thousand years of evolution have adapted to pollination. Also, the flowers have developed many adaptations enabling their pollination. Full pollination increases crop, improves the quality of fruits and vegetables, increases their sugar and vitamins content and also improves the quality of seeds. In return, entomophilous plants provide insect rich in nutrients pollen and nectar (Ollerton et al, 2011). The largest and most important group of pollinators are hymenoptera among them Apidae: honey bee, solitary bees and bumblebees. Another group are flies, butterflies and beetles. The honey bee plays a major role among all pollinators, pollinating about 90% of trees, shrubs, plants, green crops and wild plants (Ollerton et al, 2011). It is known that the pollination of flowers by the honeybee have more important significance for man than produced honey, propolis pollen or…show more content…
In the United Kingdom, at least 39 species of agricultural plants grown for fruit or seed collection is pollinated by insects. Honey Bees and bumblebees are most commonly found insects on flowers and are the main pollinators of crops. As a result of the analysis of 13 major field crops and 2 greenhouse cultivation is estimated that the annual value arising from insect pollination in the UK amounts 202 million pounds. From what on honey bees accounts about 137.8 million pounds (Carreck and Williams, 1998). Recent estimates suggest that the global economic benefits of natural pollination amount to 265 billion per year (UNEP,

More about Honey Bees Pollination

Open Document