page_title: Coevolution
section_title: Insects and entomophilous flowers
hierarchical_section_title: Coevolution / Mutualism / Flowering plants / Insects and entomophilous flowers
caption_attribution_description: Eesti: Itaalia mesilane (Apis mellifera ligustica) valge mesika (Melilotus albus) õisikul, mille õietolm on kollane. Keila, Loode-Eesti. English: Italian bee (Apis mellifera ligustica) on the white sweet clover (Melilotus albus). Pollen basket contains yellow pollen. Keila, Northwestern Estonia. Español: Abeja italiana (Apis mellifera ligustica), con las corbículas cargadas de polen, sobre la flor del meliloto blanco. Keila, noroeste de Estonia. Polski: Pszczoła włoska (Apis mellifera ligustica) z&#160;obnóżem zawierającym żółty pyłek na&#160;nostrzyku białym (Melilotus albus). Sfotografowano w&#160;Keila w&#160;północno-zachodniej Estonii. Português: Abelha-italiana (Apis mellifera ligustica), com as corbículas carregadas de pólen, sobre a flor do meliloto-branco. Keila, noroeste da Estônia. Български: Италианска медоносна пчела (Apis mellifera ligustica) върху цвят на бяла комунига (Melitotus albus). Поленовата кошничка съдържа цветен прашец. Кейла, Северозападна Естония. Čeština: Včela medonosná italská (Apis mellifera ligustica) na květech rostliny komonice bílá, které obsahují pyl žluté barvy. Foto poblíž města Keila, severozápadní Estonsko. Deutsch: Eine Italienische Biene (Apis mellifera ligustica) auf Weißem Steinklee (Melilotus albus). Deutlich ist am Hinterbein der in dem „Körbchen“ gesammelte Pollen zu erkennen. Aufgenommen in Keila, Estland Magyar: Olasz méh (Apis mellifera ligustica) egy fehér somkórón (Melilotus albus) (Keila, Észtország) Italiano: L'ape italiana si è formata sopravvivendo all'era delle glaciazioni, come le sottospecie geneticamente differenti della Spagna e della Sicilia. È la sottospecie più diffusa al mondo tra le api mellifere, per l'apprezzamento che ha tra gli apicoltori, in quanto ha dimostrato di essere adattabile alla maggior parte dei climi. Questo esemplare è stato fotografato a Keila, in Estonia. Македонски: Италијанска пчела (Apis mellifera ligustica) на цвет од бела комунига (Melilotus albus) во Кеила, северозападна Естонија. Nederlands: Een honingbij op witte honingklaver. Het gele stuifmeel dat ze bij zich draagt, is duidelijk zichtbaar.
context_page_description: In biology, coevolution occurs when two or more species reciprocally affect each other's evolution through the process of natural selection. The term sometimes is used for two traits in the same species affecting each other's evolution, as well as gene-culture coevolution.
  Charles Darwin mentioned evolutionary interactions between flowering plants and insects in On the Origin of Species. Although he did not use the word coevolution, he suggested how plants and insects could evolve through reciprocal evolutionary changes. Naturalists in the late 1800s studied other examples of how interactions among species could result in reciprocal evolutionary change. Beginning in the 1940s, plant pathologists developed breeding programs that were examples of human-induced coevolution. Development of new crop plant varieties that were resistant to some diseases favored rapid evolution in pathogen populations to overcome those plant defenses. That, in turn, required the development of yet new resistant crop plant varieties, producing an ongoing cycle of reciprocal evolution in crop plants and diseases that continues to this day.
context_section_description: Modern insect-pollinated (entomophilous) flowers are conspicuously coadapted with insects to ensure pollination and in return to reward the pollinators with nectar and pollen. The two groups have coevolved for over 100 million years, creating a complex network of interactions. Either they evolved together, or at some later stages they came together, likely with pre-adaptations, and became mutually adapted. Paul R. Ehrlich and Peter H. Raven in 1964 used a form of coevolution to describe the evolutionary interactions of plants and butterflies.
  Several highly successful insect groups—especially the Hymenoptera (wasps, bees and ants) and Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) as well as many types of Diptera (flies) and Coleoptera (beetles)—evolved in conjunction with flowering plants during the Cretaceous (145 to 66 million years ago). The earliest bees, important pollinators today, appeared in the early Cretaceous. A group of wasps sister to the bees evolved at the same time as flowering plants, as did the Lepidoptera. Further, all the major clades of bees first appeared between the middle and late Cretaceous, simultaneously with the adaptive radiation of the eudicots (three quarters of all angiosperms), and at the time when the angiosperms became the world's dominant plants on land.
  At least three aspects of flowers appear to have coevolved between flowering plants and insects, because they involve communication between these organisms. Firstly, flowers communicate with their pollinators by scent; insects use this scent to determine how far away a flower is, to approach it, and to identify where to land and finally to feed. Secondly, flowers attract insects with patterns of stripes leading to the rewards of nectar and pollen, and colours such as blue and ultraviolet, to which their eyes are sensitive; in contrast, bird-pollinated flowers tend to be red or orange. Thirdly, flowers such as some orchids mimic females of particular insects, deceiving males into pseudocopulation.
  The yucca, Yucca whipplei, is pollinated exclusively by Tegeticula maculata, a yucca moth that depends on the yucca for survival. The moth eats the seeds of the plant, while gathering pollen. The pollen has evolved to become very sticky, and remains on the mouth parts when the moth moves to the next flower. The yucca provides a place for the moth to lay its eggs, deep within the flower away from potential predators.
caption: Honey bee taking a reward of nectar and collecting pollen in its pollen baskets from white melilot flowers
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