Monarch Joint Venture Grant Reprint 2018 Perfectly Amazing Pollinators

Inside: Hummingbird Flowers Beautiful Butterflies

Photo by Beth Waterbury Praise for Pollinators! Beacons for Insect Pollinators ith spring in the air and summer right use to attract pollinators are called pollination Flowers: Waround the corner, this is the perfect time syndromes. By looking at the pollination nsects pollinate more to praise pollinators! What is pollination, and syndromes, you can figure out the pollinator Iflowers than any other Images of a type of pollinator. Plants what are pollinators? Why should you praise most likely to visit a flower. Mimulus flower in need pollinators to find them? Well, you just may not be able to survive visible light (left) without them! When pollinators pollinate their flowers, so they have Lesser flowers, they make food for developed many ways to and ultraviolet light Plants need to reproduce; they Long-nosed humans. Pollinators help create help insects do their job. (right) showing a Bat need to make seeds. Plants use one out of every three bites of dark nectar guide A lesser long-nosed Bees and butterflies can flowers to make the fruits and bat pollinates a cross food you eat! Three-quarters section of a saguaro see a kind of light called that is visible to bees seeds to reproduce. Pollination cactus flower. This of all the plants used to feed species is not ultraviolet light. Ultraviolet but not to humans. happens when pollen is moved found in Idaho. people are pollinated by Photo by Merlin D. Tuttle, from the male part of a flower Bat Conservation International animals. Insects pollinate more light is something that By Plantsurfer - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3683900 to the female part. Plants can’t than 200 kinds of crop plants humans can’t see. If you looked at a flower under a move pollen themselves, so they just in the United States. Think The size and shape of flowers attract certain purple light, it would look differently than it does need the help of things called of all the food you wouldn’t kinds of pollinators. Some butterflies like lots of in daylight. The purple light allows you to see vectors. Vectors can be wind, have if pollinators disappeared. small flowers close together. A butterfly bush patterns on the flower that show in ultraviolet water, birds, insects, butterflies, We would have no carrots, has flowers in clusters. The butterfly can sit and light. You would see lines going down the flower bats and other animals. Animals apples, tomatoes, or berries. We sip nectar from many flowers without having to petals. You might see a bulls-eye in the center that transfer pollen from plant would also have a world without move. It doesn’t need to use as much energy of the flower. These patterns are called nectar to plant are called “pollinators.” chocolate. A tiny fly, no bigger than a pin head, while it’s eating. Small, delicate flowers might guides. The lines lead insects to the nectar deep pollinates cacao flowers. Chocolate is made from work well for butterflies, but not bumblebees. Flowers are more than just beautiful. The inside the flower. It’s like the flower turned on the seeds found in the cacao seed pod. Bumblebees are a bit beefier than a butterfly. flowers we enjoy also look and smell good to lights to its own secret airport runway. They need flowers with larger petals to support pollinators. Many pollinators and plants have Read on to learn a bit more about some of the their heavier bodies. A snapdragon flower or evolved together; they are perfectly matched to pollinators found in Idaho. If you see one of Insects see colors differently than we do. A apple flower has a large landing strip for a bee. each other. The flower’s form, color and scent them drinking from a flower, give it a little praise! bee looking at a red flower would see the color A bee could easily land and sip nectar from all come into play. Some flowers even send out The animal is getting a tasty treat and getting black. When ultraviolet light hits the red color, these flowers. Can you think of other types of beacons to pollinators we can’t see. Flowers dusted with pollen. This helps the plant produce bees see a glowing purple. Most butterflies flowers that give bees a good landing platform? sometimes have what are called nectar guides. seeds and fruits. Both pollinator and plant help are also drawn to red flowers because of the Nectar guides are special patterns on the flower each other to survive. They also are helping you ultraviolet light the flowers reflect. that some pollinators can see. The things flowers to survive! Pollinator Syndrome Traits Hummingbird Flowers FLOWER Bats Bees Beetles Birds Butterflies Flies Moths Wind ver 130 different flowers in western North Hummingbird flowers also contain large amounts TRAIT OAmerica are “hummingbird” flowers. These of nectar. Hovering takes a lot of energy. Flowers Pale and dull to Pale and Dull green, flowers depend on hummingbirds for need to make sure the hummingbird Dull white, Bright white, Scarlet, Bright, dark brown or dull red, brown or Dull white COLOR green or yellow, blue or orange, red or including red purple; flecked purple, colorless; pollination. They do everything they gets a big reward for the energy it or green purple ultraviolet white and purple with translucent pink or petals absent patches white or reduced can to make sure that hummingbirds takes to hover and sip nectar. find them! NECTAR No Yes No No Yes No No No Flowers get something in return GUIDES Most hummingbird flowers droop for making hummingbird meals. Strong None to Strong musty; Fresh, mild, strongly Faint but sweet; down toward the ground. Drooping Flowers get pollinated! As a ODOR None Putrid None emitted at pleasant fruity or fresh emitted at flowers do not give insects the hummingbird feeds, its head and night stinky night landing pad they need, but face get brushed with pollen. Many Abundant; Sometimes Ample; Ample; Usually Ample; deeply hummingbirds can hover. They flowers are designed to make sure NECTAR somewhat present; not deeply Usually absent deeply None present hidden hidden hidden hidden hidden can easily hover to sip nectar from © Yugen, UCSC Arboretum, flickr.com hummingbirds get a good dusting

Abundant; drooping flowers. Many of these of pollen. As the bird moves from Limited; often POLLEN small, Ample sticky and Ample Modest Limited Modest in amount Limited flowers are red or yellow. Hummingbirds can one flower to another, it brushes against more AMOUNTS smooth and scented not sticky see red and yellow, but most insects cannot. pollen. Pollen is exchanged between plants. By

Regular; Shallow; Large funnel Narrow tube Regular; Regular; Hummingbird flowers usually do not smell. pollinating its food source, the hummingbirds Large Shallow; funnel bowl shaped; have landing like; cups, with spur; tubular small and SHAPE bowl, like like or complex Smelly flowers attract insects, not hummingbirds. make sure they will have food again next year. closed platform; strong perch wide landing without stigmas magnolia and trap-like during day tubular support pad a lip sticking out muscles on your chest. In most birds, the pectoral muscles make up 15% to 20% of a bird’s body size. caterpillars eat the leaves, flowers and fruits In hummingbirds, these muscles make up 30%. Western of plants in the goosefoot family. They like to Now you know why a hummingbird can beat its Pygmy-blue eat pigweed and saltbrush. Adults drink nectar wings 70 to 80 times in one second! from many different plants. The caterpillars have an interesting protector—ants! The caterpillars Hummingbirds also have large brains. They have have a special honey gland that makes a sugary the largest brains of any bird when compared to solution that ants love to eat. If a caterpillar the bird’s size. This big brain gives hummingbirds feels threatened, it releases a scent that makes excellent memories. They can remember the the ants go crazy. They attack the caterpillar’s places where they have found good food predator. The ants may even kill the predator if it sources and nesting places. This means that the doesn’t leave! hummingbirds at your feeder last summer might be the same ones you see this summer! Idaho’s largest butterfly is the two-tailed swallowtail. It is found all across the state. The To drink nectar, hummingbirds need long, straight caterpillars of this butterfly really like the leaves bills. Often the bill is matched to certain flowers. of ash and cherry trees. The adults drink nectar Rufous Hummingbird Tiny calliope hummingbirds have a short bill from all sorts of flowers. © Anne Toal, flickr.com © Catherine Zinsky compared to other Idaho hummingbirds. This allows them to feed on flowers with short tubes Keep an eye out for like scarlet gilia (hill-EE-a). Their flower tubes are here are about butterflies. If you HUMMINGBIRDS too short for other hummingbirds. Black-chinned T170 species or see one, see if you hummingbirds have longer bills. They can easily kinds of butterflies can identify it and reach the nectar in longer flowers like penstemon in Idaho! We have find out more about oodstar, mountain gem, sunbeam and (PEN-stem-on). By having different lengths of some interesting what it needs. The sunangel are just a few of the names people W bills, the hummingbirds don’t compete for food. butterflies in our Digital Atlas of Idaho have called hummingbirds. This neat group of state, and they may be a good place birds is found only in the New World. That means all have their own Beautiful to start your search. that unless you live in North or South America, needs when it imnh.isu.edu/ you will not see hummingbirds! comes to habitats. DIGITALATLAS/bio/ insects/insefr.htm There are about 340 different kinds of Butterflies Good luck! hummingbirds. Most of them live in warm tropical Calliope are known for places near the Equator. About 19 different Butterflies Hummingbird being nature’s hummingbirds live in the United States. Four transformers. They of those spend the summer in Idaho: rufous change as they go hummingbird, calliope hummingbird, broad-tailed through their life hummingbird and black-chinned hummingbird. cycles. All butterflies start their life as an egg. Hummingbirds range in size from the tiny two © Catherine Zinsky They hatch out into a caterpillar, change into a and one-half inch bumblebee hummingbird to chrysalis and then become an adult. They go larger eight inch tropical species. In the United through a metamorphosis. At each stage of life, States, most hummingbirds are about four inches butterflies have different food needs. in size. No matter what their size, hummingbirds Caterpillars are picky about what they eat. The Two-tailed are pretty amazing! Like all birds, they can fly Broad-tailed adults are usually happy drinking nectar from Swallowtail forwards, but they can also hover and are the only Hummingbird just about any flower. There are a few butterflies bird that can fly backwards. Being able to fly in that don’t like to drink nectar. The mourning so many directions allows hummingbirds to reach cloak butterfly likes to sip tree sap and rotting the flower nectar they need. fruit. There are even butterflies that like to © Chuck Roberts, flickr.com Hummingbirds can fly in so many different eat animal droppings! The Lorquin’s and red directions because of their wings. Their long admiral butterflies love to sip from bird poop! pointed wings rotate at the shoulder. The Idaho is home to the smallest butterfly in wrist and elbow hardly move at all. When a the world! The western pygmy-blue is only hummingbird hovers, its wings make a horizontal Black-chinned about the size of a dime. Its wingspan is about figure “8” in the air. This makes the wings act like Hummingbird three-quarters on an inch. This little butterfly oars in the air, so the hummingbird can stay in lives in the deserts of southern Idaho. The one place while it feeds on a flower. The wings are photo by Alan Schmierer powered by huge pectoral muscles. These are the © Chuck Roberts, flickr.com Buzzing Bees & Plant a Pollinator Wandering Wasps Garden! ou are sitting outside, reading a book on a Yellowjackets kill prey by biting, not stinging. Ywarm spring day, when all They offer this food as chewed-up goo to their of the sudden you hear an larvae. The adults mainly feed on plant unmistakable sound— nectar. When insects become harder to buzz —buzz. It’s the find, yellowjackets will seek out dead sound of a bee animals and sugary foods. This is flying near. Does when they become pests at our the sound make picnics. you nervous or jumpy? Bees and wasps are actually How about very beneficial insects. If you thankful and like to eat, you should thank a happy? bee. Over 150 kinds of crops we eat are pollinated only or Photo by U.S. Department of Agriculture The words mostly by bees. Even wasps bee, wasp, are beneficial. They can be a pring is just around the corner. Soon • Provide a source of yellowjacket farmer’s best friend. Wasps hummingbirds, bees, butterflies and other water, especially a muddy puddle. Bees and and hornet eat many of the insects that S

insects will be out looking for food. How about wasps will use the mud to make homes.

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WORDS

BATS

BEES

H F Q M D P V J E X P L N B B BEETLES

S U L N O H A N Z O Y U E E N BUTTERFLIES

D E M O B T A H L S U F C E R COLORFUL

Z Z M M W T H L F X I R T S F CROPS

Y S C O I E I S S B H O A D L FLIES

Z Z C U R N R L W U D L R E U FLOWERS

K T R B A D G S N T P O Y E E FOOD

B F A T M C N B V T G C O S U FRUIT

X T I L O O S Y I E P J V F X GUIDES

S O B E E T L E S R H O Z R G HUMMINGBIRDS

N P N E L L O P I F D Y Z U M MOTHS

T E L O I V A R T L U S I D A NECTAR

R O D O E U N R U I F D P L E ODOR

R W E C R O P S R E E I Q Y Q POLLEN

F E E R D L G S F S W K H R E POLLINATION

SEEDS

SYNDROMES

ULTRAVIOLET

WILDLIFE EXPRESS Monarch Joint Venture Grant Reprint 2018 of Volume 29 • Issue 7 • Pollinators • March 2016

Wildlife Express is published nine times a year WE WOULD LIKE TO HEAR FROM YOU! (September-May) If you have a letter, poem or question for Wildlife Express, by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game it may be included in a future issue! Send it to: [email protected] Lead Writer: Adare Evans or Layout: Kelly Kennedy Yokoyama Wildlife Express, Idaho Fish and Game Contributors: Lori Adams, Vicky Runnoe, Beth Waterbury PO Box 25, Boise, ID 83707