Insect Pollination-Games Plants Play

About 75 per cent of plants on earth are angiosperms and over 80 per cent of angiosperms are pollinated by insects. Entomophily or insect pollination is considered tobemore efficient andreliable than other mechanisms of pollen transfer as it confers advantages such as reduced requirement of pollen and space neutrality to the host plants. So much so that the superiority of entomophily is believed tohave led to the rise and domination of angiosperms in plant kingdom. Even though pollination is regarded as a mutualistic interaction in which both plants and pollinators are benefitted, plants recruit and retain insect pollinators ward off competition by providing rewards to the insect pollinators. Such rewards may be in the form of pollen, nectar, oil, brood place etc., the availability of which is often advertised through such means as odour and colour to respective pollinators. While the rewards mediate most insect pollinator interactions, plants also resort to deception in attracting pollinators. The most common form of deception is mimicry, while other forms such as pseudocopulation, pseudoaggression, trap blossoms, pseudopollen and pseudonectaries have also been documented.