Beetles were among the first insects to visit flowers and they remain essential pollinators today. Beetles will eat their way through petals and other floral parts. They even defecate within flowers, earning them the nickname “mess and soil” pollinators. Research has shown that beetles are capable of color-vision.

Entomophily or insect pollination is a form of pollination whereby pollen of plants, especially but not only of flowering plants, is distributed by insects.

Many beetle species eat pollen, so the plants they visit must produce a lot of pollen to make sure that there is enough left to pollinate the flower after the beetles are done eating! Beetles are attracted to spicy, fruity or rancid flesh-like odors.

Hint: Insect-pollinated flowers are often sweetly-scented. They are large and have brightly colored petals. They usually contain nectar- to attract insects. They have pollen grains that are often sticky and spiky so that they can stick to the legs and body of insects.

falooda is not a characteristics of insect pollinated flower.

Insect pollinated flowers are those flowers which rely on insects ( e.g. bees, butterflies), birds (e.g. sunbird, hummingbird) and animals (e.g. bats) to transfer the pollen grains from the anther of one flower to the stigma of another flower. Some insect-pollinated flower examples are Sunflowers, Orchids and Buddleja.

iii) Roses are pollinated by insects and this method is called entomophily. The flower is brightly colored and produces nectar. This attracts the insect. When the same insect visits another flower it dusts the pollens on its stigma resulting in pollination.

Different species of flowers may be pollinated by the same insect….

• Orchids The Orchid family, Orchidaceae is the largest family of flowering plants in the world.
• Blue Butterfly Pea / Clitoria ternatea The native tropical plant, Clitoria ternatea or Blue Butterfly Pea is insect-pollinated.