Monarch Butterfly

Here's another Monarch Butterfly.

While both butterflies and bees are important pollinators, their motivations are different. Bees (at least bumblebees and honeybees) need to gather both nectar and pollen to bring back for their offspring to eat, so they're transporting pollen from flower to flower on purpose. Fortunately for flowers, the bees end up pollinating the flowers when some of the pollen spills out in their travels.

Butterflies on the other hand don't have a use for pollen. They're sustaining themselves by drinking nectar but get pollen on themselves that they accidentally transport to the next flower. My impression is that bees are considered better pollinators; their intentional collection of pollen means they usually carry more to the next flower, even if their intention is to bring all that pollen back to their larva.

August 18, 2020 at Duke Farms


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