Buzz Pollination of Tomato Plants by Blue Banded Bees (HD Slow-motion)

Описание: Buzz pollination is a type of pollination used by some bees like bumble bees and blue banded bees to extract pollen from the anthers of the flowers.
In certain plants, the pollen is firmly held inside tube-shaped anthers which have an opening at the end. The anthers usually surround the stigma. About 20,000 species of plants require buzz pollination. This is the notably the case of tomatoes, eggplants, potatoes, Dianella, blueberries and cranberries.
To make the pollen fall out of the anthers of these plants, bees must vibrate the anthers. Blue banded bees and bumble bees are very efficient buzz pollinators, like many other species of wild bees.
These bees hold onto the anthers, curving their body under the flower so that the falling pollen is caught by the many hairs on the under side of their abdomen.
They vibrate their wings, which dislodges some of the pollen in the anthers. While vibrating, they also spread some of the pollen they previously collected on the stigma of the flower, which is located between the openings of the tube-shaped anthers.
This pollinates the flowers very efficiently. You can see grains of pollen flying around the bees while they vibrate in the video.

Not all bees are able to vibrate anthers, for example honey bees cannot buzz pollinate. This shows how protecting various bee species, and not just the European honey bee, is essential to food production.
You can see on this other slow motion video that honey bees collecting nectar from borage flowers do not buzz pollinate:
   • Pollination in Slow Motion | Honey Bees  

Video shot with Nikon Z7ii and Laowa 80mm 2X Macro. Slow motion 5x (120 fps to 24fps), real sound slown down without changing the pitch in the last segments, a noise reduction was applied in Premiere Pro.
Last segments are shown twice, once in real speed, once in slow motion. There was no use of bait, insects were not disturbed, editing was limited to cutting segments and rescaling.

Contact information: [email protected]

The evolution of flower pollination, a conference by Dr. Mario Vallejo-Marin:
   • Buzz pollination: Bee vibrations and flora...