Identifying Pollinators

There’s more to
pollination than just bees

Pollinators come in many sizes, shapes, colors, behaviors –
and that's only what we can observe.
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The USDA has a basic introduction to how to distinguish pollinators from other insects.

Pollinators also can be related to each other, sometimes closely, sometimes not. We group related organisms (plants, insects, etc.) under very large families called “orders” such as bees, flies, wasps, butterflies, moths and beetles (all common names). Thank goodness bats and hummingbirds easily recognizable as bats and hummingbirds!

The first thing is to learn how to tell which order your insect pollinator belongs to. If you take pictures of your pollinators, you can then compare them to other pictures on the Internet. The goal is to be able to tell very quickly which order an insect might belong to. Sometimes, this is not possible because the pollinator flew away too fast, or it was too far away, or it was very small, or we just couldn't get enough clues to be sure. The point is, a good guess is sometimes good enough.

Some insects are very tricky; they imitate other insects from a different order to confuse their predators. There are always special cases but what we need are rules (keys) that work well more often than not. BugGuide.net and INaturalist let you post your photos and request help with identification.

There are about
200,000 species
of animals in the
world that provide pollination services

Video

Bee or Wasp?

Bees

Bees are adapted to collecting and carrying pollen, so they have finely branched hair where the pollen gets trapped.
These hairs make the bees look like they are wearing a tiny, fuzzy coat.This is especially noticeable on their thorax (where the wings are attached).
Some bees' legs are also hairy and have a special shape to hold the pollen together in small pellets during flight.

Wasps

Almost no wasps collect pollen; they just eat the nectar of flowers.
If they have hair, it is unbranched so they appear less fuzzy than bees. Their whole body can even look very smooth and shiny and is usually more elongated (cylinder-like) than a bee's, even slender.
Compared to wasps, bees’ body sections are more rounded than elongated.

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Is this an image
of a bee or a wasp?

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Answer: Bee

Fly or Bee?

We are all familiar with house flies but there are many kinds of flies which don't look so familiar but they are very common in our gardens. In fact, it is easy to mistake them for bees (or wasps). Flies have only one pair of wings whereas bees and wasps have two pairs, but counting insect wings while crawling among the sunflowers and clover is nearly impossible!

Is this an image
of a fly or bee?

> CLICK HERE FOR answer

Answer: Fly

This picture shows a fly feeding just like a bee would. But, look carefully at her antennae. They are short and stubby, barely sticking out, unlike those of a bee or a wasp; this is typical of flies.

Butterfly or Moth?

Maybe you don't expect to see moths when observing pollinators during daytime but there are a few around. You might see some foraging long before sunset and wonder whether they are butterflies or moths. When resting on a flower, rock, etc., moths keep their wings flat open or folded around their body, while butterflies fold their wings up above their body when resting. That's an easy way to tell them apart, even from a distance. Also, moth bodies tend to be thicker than butterfly bodies.

Is this an image
of a butterfly or moth?

> CLICK HERE FOR answer

Answer: Butterfly

You'll notice, its' wings are folded together.

The Beetle

Beetles are also common on flowers but you might not notice them as often as other pollinators. They are easy to distinguish. For one thing, their forewings (they have two pairs like bees and wasps), are not much of a wing. They even have a special name - elytra - to differentiate them from real wings used for flight. The elytra of a beetle are modified for protection of the two real wings underneath. They are thick and strong and you cannot see through them. When a beetle wants to fly, it has to open it's elytra first and use its hindwings to fly. Beetles are believed to be the very first pollinators more than a 100 million years ago.