GELIFES Seminars - Mario Vallejo-Marin

Mario Vallejo-Marin (Stirling University, UK)

Vibrating bees: Function and evolution of buzz pollination

Some bees have evolved the capacity to use vibrations (buzzes) to extract and collect pollen grains from flowers with specialised morphologies. This curious but widespread buzzing bee behaviour is present in approximately half of all bee species and is the main pollination mechanism in more than 20,000 species of flowering plants. In this talk, I will present our current understanding of how this “buzz pollination” works and provide some speculation on its evolutionary significance. See Youtube for amusing videos.