Tiny, But Mighty, Pollinators

It's Pollinator Week, so it seems like a perfect time to write about pollinators.  Little pollinators, to be more specific.

The first spring after we moved into The Land of the Giant Trees, small white flowers with yellow centers appeared in relative abundance around the yard.  Although I was pretty sure these were some sort of fleabane (Erigeron sp.), I wasn't sure which one.

"Are they useful for pollinators?" Prairie Boy kept asking, "Because they look rather weedy."  The question amused and irritated me.  We have all been brainwashed to think that almost any plant that grows without being purchased from somewhere is a "weed".  I'm trying hard to uproot this attitude from my own psyche, but it's well established and deeply rooted, even for me.  

Despite my amusement about Prairie Boy's question, I had trouble answering it.  My instinct was to say yes, the fleabane was useful for pollinators since these plants were native, but I honestly wasn't seeing much action on the flowers.  No honey bees.  No bumble bees.  No butterflies.  (Although that last observation wasn't really fair, since we weren't seeing any butterflies anywhere.)

Surely SOMETHING was using the fleabane!

It seemed like a good idea to identify which fleabane we had.  It turned out to be Philadelphia Fleabane (Erigeron philadelphicus), a biennual. Now I could learn more about the plant and know what to expect from it in future years.

I started watching the blooms more closely...and I started noticing quite a bit of activity on the them.  However, almost all the visitors were tiny little insects that I literally couldn't see from very far away.  No wonder it didn't look like there was much activity on the fleabane until I started looking closely!  

The aster-like flowers of Philadelphia Fleabane are relatively small, about 3/4-1" in diameter, and most of the insects were MUCH smaller than the flowers.  In fact, many were so small that I had trouble identifying them much beyond "flying insect" with just my eyes.  As the days and weeks went by, though, it was obvious these tiny animals were, in fact, pollinators - and they were excellent pollinators at that.  The flowers developed into healthy seed heads in short order.

Eventually I started using my camera to focus on the tiny pollinators of Philadelphia Fleabane and other small flowers, trying to learn the identify of these minuscule creatures.  It's an amazing world that exists literally right alongside us - and yet most of us are completely unaware of these important little creatures who live inches from us.

As I explored this minute world further, I found a varied cast of characters.  Not only were there pollinators, but there were predators and parasitoids and even passers-by, who just seemed to be stopping in the neighborhood for a rest and a quiet "think".

For example, in the photo above, there is a Georgia Mason Bee (Osmia georgica) in the middle of the photo.  There is also a Club-horned Wasp (Sapyga centrata) in the upper left, a Harvestman (a.k.a. Daddy Longlegs) below that, a Crab Spider on the bloom just below and to the right of the mason bee, a tiny wasp about to land on that same bloom, and some other insect hiding on the other side of that blossom that I can't quite make out.  Any of these insects can be acting as pollinators as they move across the flowers, although the mason bee and the wasp are the ones we would traditionally categorize that way.  

Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium angustifolium) is another native plant that I didn't see pollinators using until I started looking more closely - and with a camera.  This member of the iris family has beautiful blue, but tiny, flowers.  They average about 1/2" in diameter.

In the photo above, a small Blue-eyed Grass flower is being pollinated by a tiny sweat bee (Lasioglossum sp.).....

and, in this second photo, another small Blue-eyed Grass flower is being pollinated by a tiny Thin-lined Calligrapher (Toxomerus boscii), a syrphid fly which is not only a pollinator as an adult, but a fierce aphid predator in its larval stage.

One of our native spireas, Meadowsweet (Spiraea alba), is another plant whose small flowers often attract small pollinators to them.  Each individual Meadowsweet flower is less than 1/4" across, although these small flowers are clustered in much larger, showy panicles.

It's easy for us to see the Emerald Flower Scarab (Trichiotinus lunulatus) pollinating the Meadowsweet flowers above, but the tiny, black Tumbling Flower Beetle (Mordella sp.) just beside it is also a potent pollinator, despite the fact that this little creature measures only about 1/4", just like each individual Meadowsweet flower it visits.

Goldenrods are yet another example of plants with showy, gorgeous blooms...that actually consist of tiny individual flowers.  They often attract tiny pollinators, too.

Here is a cloud of tiny sweat bees (Lasioglossum sp.) pollinating the flowers on Wreath Goldenrod (Solidago caesia) last October. Lasioglossum bees are fairly common tiny, but mighty, pollinators.

I was taught about the role of insects in pollination by learning about the Western Honey Bee, (Apis mellifera) which is actually a fairly large bee.  I'm not a gambler, but I'd be willing to place a good-sized bet that you learned about pollination as a function of the European honey bee, too.  Did you realize that honey bees are not native in North America, and that many folks consider them an invasive species?!  

So how did the plants on this continent get pollinated before Europeans brought honey bees over with them?  Our native pollinators, that's how, and many of these native pollinators are TINY.  Our native pollinators evolved with our native plants to do the job that needed to be done, and they are exceptionally good at doing their job. 

Check your flowers this summer.  Look past the "giant" bumble bees and the "large" honey bees for the smaller pollinators.   Then take a moment to let yourself get lost in wonder at the Lilliputian worlds all around us. It's pretty close to magic for me.