oligolecty
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˌɒlɪɡə(ʊ)ˈlɛkti/
ipa: /ɒˌlɪɡə(ʊ)-/
ipa: /ˌɑləɡoʊˈlɛkti/
ipa: /ˌoʊ-/
ipa: /əˌlɪɡə-/
Etymology: Probably from oligolectic + -y (suffix forming abstract nouns denoting conditions, qualities, or states). Oligolectic is derived from English oligo- (prefix meaning ‘few’) (from Ancient Greek ὀλῐ́γος (olĭ́gos, “few, little”), from Proto-Indo-European *(o)leyg- (“indigent, poor; miserable”)) + Ancient Greek λεκτός (lektós, “chosen”) (from λέγω (légō, “to choose; to arrange; to gather”), from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to collect, gather”)) + English -ic (suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ from nouns), possibly modelled after eclectic.
Senses: examples: text: We have, thus, a case where different types of bees are similarly adapted to oligolecty on a certain group of plants.
ref: 1944 April 10, Charles Duncan Michener, “Comparative External Morphology, Phylogeny, and a Classification of the Bees (Hymenoptera)”, in Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, volume 82, article 6, New York, N.Y.: American Museum of Natural History, →ISSN, →OCLC, part 2 (Comparative External Morphology of the Bees), page 218, column 2:
text: The most likely explanation for oligolecty in bees is not different from the explanation of specificity of any organism to its habitat; in fact, oligolecty is a form of host specificity.
ref: 1954 June 21, Charles Duncan Michener, “Bees of Panamá”, in Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, volume 104, article 1, New York, N.Y.: American Museum of Natural History, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 6, column 2:
text: In so far as now known, all of the species exhibit a high degree of oligolecty (or monolecty) being restricted in pollen collecting to a single genus of plants.
ref: 1955 October, E[arle] G[orton] Linsley, J[ohn] W[inslow] MacSwain, Ray F[red] Smith, “Observations on the Nesting Habits and Flower Relationships of Some Species of Melandrina (Hymenoptera: Andrenidae)”, in P. D. Hurd, Jr., editor, The Pan-Pacific Entomologist, volume XXXI, number 4, San Francisco, Calif.: Pacific Coast Entomological Society, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 175:
text: An individual of a polylectic species that takes pollen from only a few kinds of plants is showing flower constancy rather than oligolecty.
ref: 1974, Charles Duncan Michener, “Glossary”, in The Social Behavior of the Bees, Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, →ISBN, page 373, column 1:
text: Once oligolecty was documented, the following two summers were used for field study of widely separated populations of I. pandurata.
ref: 1978, Daniel F. Austin, “Morning Glory Bees and the Ipomoea pandurata Complex (Hymenoptera: Anthophoridae)”, in Manya B. Stoetzel, editor, Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington, volume 80, number 3, Washington, D.C.: Entomological Society of Washington, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 397:
text: That oligolecty exists is indisputable, but its application to particular bee species engenders confusion and debate. […] We propose a definition of oligolecty that is sufficiently inclusive without diluting the intended meaning for undisputed cases: we define oligolecty as consistent and predictable reliance of a species on a few plant genera for their pollen needs.
ref: 2006, James H. Cane, Sedonia Sipes, “Characterizing Floral Specialization by Bees: Analytical Methods and a Revised Lexicon for Oligolecty”, in Nickolas M. Waser, Jeff Ollerton, editors, Plant–Pollinator Interactions: From Specialization to Generalization, Chicago, Ill.; London: University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, part II (The Ecology and Evolution of Specialized and Generalized Pollination), page 110:
text: In most studies sampling is limited to a few sites, and therefore oligolecty is dubiously assigned. Moreover, both abundant and minor pollen types are generally considered at a same level of importance.
ref: 2018, Favio Gerardo Vossler, “Are Stingless Bees a Broadly Polylectic Group? An Empirical Study of the Adjustments Required for an Improved Assessment of Pollen Diet in Bees”, in Patricia Vit, Silvia R. M. Pedro, David W. Roubik, editors, Pot-pollen in Stingless Bee Melittology, Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature, →DOI, →ISBN, part I (Pollen and the Evolution of Mutualism), section 2.2 (Pollen Specialization Categories in Bees), page 19, column 1:
text: The two most basal bee families, Dasypodaidae and Mellitidae, are predominantly composed of pollen specialists, indicating that oligolecty might be the ancestral state in bees[…]. In the western Palaearctic anthidiine bees, several transitions from oligolecty to polylecty were found, but none from polylecty to oligolecty[…].
ref: 2020, R. G. Vastrad, “Specialized Bees Fail to Develop on Non-host Pollen: Do Plants Chemically Protect Their Pollen?”, in A Study of Floral Specialization in Solitary Bees, Raleigh, N.C.: Lulu, →ISBN, page 31:
topics: biology
entomology
natural-sciences
glosses: The preference of an insect pollinator (chiefly a bee) for pollinating only a few plant species.
Hyponyms: monolecty
Coordinate terms: mesolecty
polylecty
Related terms: oligolectic
oligolege
oligotropic