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 Many people think wasps are a nuisance, or are afraid of wasps because they sting. But wasps are also beneficial.

As they are predatory, and capture insects they provide vital ecological pest control services. Wasps also require pollen and nectar, and are common visitors to flowers. They carry pollen as they move around flowers, and serve as pollinators.

Figwasps are the tiny pollinators of mighty fig trees, with whom they have a very special relationship. Figs trees have their flowers inside the fruit. The figwasp is adapted to be able to burrow its way through a tiny opening into the fruit to bred, and pollinate the flowers.

There are many species of fig trees in East Africa, and each can be pollinated only by a particular species of figwasp. The tree cannot survive without the figwasp, and the wasp cannot survive without the tree. They are wedded together forever. It is female figwasps who pollinate, being able to fly between trees.

Males never leave the fig they are born in.

 Green figs (are actually enclosed flowers, called a synconium), detail of a synconium in cross-section with an approaching wasp to scale.

Female fig wasp ovipositing in short-styled female flower next to fertile long-styled female flower that she pollinates with pollen from the pockets on her side.
These eggs develop and flightless male fig wasps hatch out (as in top bottom left) and mate with females. Then mature females hatch out, gather pollen and depart the fig to repeat the whole cycle.

Sunbirds are colourful pollinators of many plants.

They are generally small in size, and have long curved beaks.

Flowers pollinated by sunbirds are often red or orange, have long tubular flowers, with lots of sugary nectar. Giant lobelias that grow on the high mountains of East Africa are pollinated by sunbirds, as are Aloes and Red-hot Poker Trees.

Many of the plants pollinated by sunbirds have adapted to particular sunbirds, having a tubular shape, and size to correspond to the  sunbird’s beak. Other organisms cannot pollinate these flowers. Sunbirds also feed on insects that visit flowers.

 Many of the plants pollinated by sunbirds have adapted to particular sunbirds

Ants

Resource Needs

Across Africa many will be familiar with ant-hills—they are one type of ant nest. Ants require areas of ground, decaying wood, and the canopy of trees for nesting.

To successfully establish an ant colony, they will also need an adequate prey food base. They also require to be near water, and to be protected from pesticide exposure.

Flies

Resource Needs

Flies will breed in a variety of places—in manure, rotting food, in rubbish for example.

Thrips

Resource Needs

Thrips require alternative host- plants to survive when crops are not in cultivation. They also need to be protected from pesticide exposure.

Butterflies

Habitat destruction due to activities like charcoal production presents the greatest threat to butterflies. Loss of host-plants, and larval host- plants prevent butterflies from finding sufficient food, and places to reproduce. Pesticide exposure also harms butterflies.

Resource Needs

Butterflies need access to wild nectar resources, and protection from pesticides.

Wasps

Resource Needs

Fig wasps can only breed in figs. To sustain fig wasps wild Ficus populations need to be conserved.

Wasps will prey on mosquitos, caterpillars, spiders, flies, or even beetle larvae, so a healthy environment is needed to have sufficient food for wasps.

Beetles

Resource Needs

Generally beetles need habitats with adequate host plants to thrive.

Bats

Bats are adversely affected by habitat destruction around them, loss of habitat along migratory routes, and when their roost sites are deliberately destroyed. In some parts of the world bats are hunted for food.

Resource Needs

Bats require: adequate food resources year-round, protection of communal roost sites, protection from hunting, available habitat for dispersal, and migration.

Sunbirds

There are numerous activities that threaten birds, including human disturbance of nesting, and roosting sites, exposure to pesticides and other toxins, habitat changes and degration, hunting, and loss of stopover sites needed on migration.

Resource Needs

Birds require healthy habitats to survive. Their nesting and breeding sites should not be disturbed, and they need protection from the misuse of pesticides, and unsustainable hunting practices.

Soil erosion and over grazing

Soil erosion and overgrazing affects pollinators by reducing the availability of safe long-term nesting sites. Removing wildflowers and the herbaceous ground- cover drastically reduces the number and diversity of bees, butterflies and other insects that can survive in an area

Wild Bees

All wild bee species require:

• Plants and flowers throughout the year for nectar and pollen
• Protection from destructive harvesting practices
• Migratory corridors of plants and flowers for species and varieties that migrate seasonally.

Carpenter bees also require tree branches, or old  wood to use as nesting sites

Leafcutter bees also require leaves from the right kinds of plants, which they will use in their burrows for nesting.

Halictid bees requirements for nectar and pollen peak when nesting as they provide each larva all of its food at one time.

The Flora of Tropical East Africa provides descriptions of over 12,000 wild plant species. Two-thirds of the flowering plants are dependent on wild pollinators, and many of these plants have co-evolved, over millions of years, with the wild pollinators that pollinate them.

Most pollinators are wild insects. For plants and wild insects to thrive, natural habitat areas are critical, and perhaps the single most important prerequisite.

Natural habitat areas near or within farms provide two essential things to support pollinators: sources of food (nectar, pollen, and host plants) for pollinators and their larvae, and equally important, secure nesting sites.

Farmers, and gardeners can encourage wild insects, and other pollinators by maintaining, and creating spaces of natural habitat. Natural habitat can include:

• a forest edge area rich with wildflowers
• roadside verges, which are not consistently shorn
• a hedgerow composed of different flowering plants
• wildflowers conserved, or planted within a field.

It is insects of five different Orders that provide us with pollination services for our crops: the Hymenoptera (Ants, Bees and Wasps), Diptera (True Flies), Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths), Coleoptera (Beetles), and Thysanoptera (Thrips).

A few bats, and birds also provide pollination services for a smaller number of plants. Bees, both solitary and social species, pollinate the majority of our crop and fodder, being entirely dependent on pollen and nectar from flowers for their survival.

Some bees, like honeybees and stingless bees convert nectar into stores of honey. Most bees, especially the solitary bees, collect pollen, and store this as food for their larvae. Many bees only forage a short distance from where they build their nests, so endeavour to have a diversity of wildflowers close to their nesting sites.

The more diversity of plants that are present and flowering across seasons, the better the conditions for bees. The type of plants in an area will depend on the habitat. In seasonal areas (which is most of Kenya) both annual, and perennial plants are important. Wildflowers that grow at the edges of forests or woodland areas tend to flower for longer periods of time.

Ocimum, Justicia, Leucas, Bidens, Indigofera, Crotolaria, Cleome, Commicarpus, Barleria, Aspilia, Crassocephalum, Emilia, Gutenbergia, and Vernonia are some of the wildflowers that are particularly attractive to bees.

Mud, grass, and wooden structures on farms can serve as important nesting sites for cavity- nesting bees.
Here is a farm storage building with a special grass hut constructed beside it to draw away ‘spirits’ from the harvest in Tabora, Tanzania.
These traditional buildings are great nesting sites for bees and wasps.

These children at Nalare in Samburu are blessed to have over thirty different bee species visiting the flowering acacia tree where they have lunch. There are hundreds of different bees present at this one site alone.
Education of young people is key for protecting pollinators and biodiversity.

About the East Africa Natural History Society, popularly known as ‘Nature Kenya’

The East Africa Natural History Society is a national organization that in 2009 celebrated it’s 100 anniversary. The Society has had exceptional achievements in the study of natural history, and nature conservation. It is supported by volunteers, naturalists, scientists, and grassroot community members.

The Insect Committee works to promote the conservation and understanding of insects. Its pollination projects aim to:

• Study, document, and describe bees and other pollinators from across East Africa.
• Raise public awareness about insects and pollination.
• Plant and promote pollinator gardens at community and public sites

• Produce leaflets, booklets, and make accessible to farmers and schools, information on insects and their importance.
• Undertake research on the impact of different farming practices on biodiversity.
• Document the benefits of pollinators to rural subsistence farmers.
• Show the links between the productivity of farms, and wild pollinator species.
• Improve food security, and reduce rural poverty through better management of shared natural resources, such as pollinators.
• Work with schools immediately adjacent to the most biodiversity-rich areas in the region.
• Run education activities like insect walks, with follow-up activities for students to try.
• Have students and teachers plant pollinator gardens in their schools.

Some of the work of the Society is carried out by its committees and projects, including the Insect Committee, which was formed in 2001.

We need your help –what can you do?

There are many different ways you can help save wild pollinators. From making a donation, and joining Nature Kenya, to participating in activities like monitoring surveys.

For more information contact us by email: insects@naturekenya.org or insects.eanhs@gmail.com

Visit our blogs: dududiaries. wildlifedirect.org/ and bit. ly/1bX3kAe

Visit our websites: discoverpollinators.org and naturekenya.org

or write to us at:

Insect Committee of Nature Kenya

The East Africa

Natural History Society

P. O. Box 44486 GPO 00100  Nairobi Kenya

B utterflies are well known insects that are active by day.
They land on flowers to feed, so they prefer large, or flat flowers where this is possible. Butterflies pollinate many red flowers with short tubes.
Flowers that are pollinated by moths, are often white or pale, and have a strong fragrance. The fragrance is often only released at night to attract nocturnal moths that come out in the evening, or at night to feed. Hawkmoths are very large moths that are active at flowers at dusk. With powerful wing beats they hover before a flower, and use their extra long tongues to access nectar in these flowers.
About 4 % of all the plants in Kenya, including Papaya (pawpaw) fruit, and many different African orchids, are pollinated by hawkmoths.

 Fulvous hawkmoth, Coelonia fulvinotata, approaching flowers of the orchid Aerangis brachycarpa. The long-tongue of the moth and long spur of the orchid flower are one of the most famous examples of coevolution.

  TOP, LEFT TO RIGHT Comma hawkmoth (Nephele sp.) probes the flowers of a Grewia, One-pip policeman skipper butterfly on Acacia brevispica.
BOTTOM Acraea butterflies on Bidens and Sphaeranthus flowers.

  TOP, LEFT TO RIGHT An Acraea sips nectar from a wild daisy.Brown- veined white, Belenois aurota, on a Sphaeranthus flower.
MIDDLE Netted Sylph skipper butterfly on flowers of Orthosiphon sp.Green-patch swallowtail sipping salts from mud.
BOTTOM  Colotis sp. on Kalanchoe flowers.

 TOP, LEFT TO RIGHT Common Scarlet butterfly, Axiocerses sp. sips nectar, Green- patch Swallowtail,
 on Kleinia and an Acraea on Bidens sp. (image cutout),Painted lady on Pentanisia,
BOTTOM LEFT TO RIGHT Playboy butterfly sipping nectar, Colotis sp. on fireball lily, Hairstreak on Justicia sp.

 Hawkmoths.
TOP LEFT TO RIGHT Skipper butterfly on Impatiens sp. in forest,  Fulvous hawkmoth at Combretum flowers.
BOTTOM LEFT TO RIGHT Unidentified hawkmoth on  a forest Vernonia, Small verdant hawkmoth Basiothia medea, visits a flowering Carissa.

 TOP, LEFT TO RIGHT Skipper butterflies at Bidens sp. and at a member of the hibiscus family.
MIDDLE Verdant hawkmoth and White-lined Sphinx at Pergularia flowers.
BOTTOM, LEFT TO RIGHT Fulvous hawkmoth approaching Aerangis orchid, Convolvulus hawkmoth visiting flowers of Turraea sp.

 There are more different kinds of beetles on the planet than any other group of creatures. Beetles have been around for a very long time, hundreds of millions of years in fact. Some beetles developed relationships with plants as specialised pollinators even before bees had appeared on the scene! Beetles are important pollinators in some habitats where bees are scarce, including some very arid areas.
Flowers that are pollinated by beetles tend to be larger and produce a musty or fruity scent to attract the beetles. A number of palm tree species, including the Oil Palm, are pollinated by specialised beetles.
In East Africa one ancient group of plants, the cycads, are pollinated by beetles, including weevils, that complete their life- cycle within the reproductive cones produced by the plants.
As there are separate male and female cycads, the pollinators are essential for the survival of some of these magnificent, rare plants in the wild.
Beetles of many different kinds including chafers, longhorns and leaf beetles, do visit flowers in large numbers. However, they mostly feed on the flowers causing some damage and don’t serve as efficient pollinators.

 Flowers that are pollinated by beetles tend to be larger and produce a musty or fruity scent to attract the beetles.

TOP, LEFT TO RIGHT Leaf beetle on acacia flower.Small longhorn beetle (Cerambycidae) on wild daisy.Rose chafer (Pachnoda sp.) on Euphorbia magnicapsula,
BOTTOM, LEFT TO RIGHT Net-winged beetle on euphorbia.Groove-winged flower beetle (Melyridae) on euphorbia

 Bees are insects. Together with ants and wasps they belong in the insect group Hymenoptera. You may be surprised that there are over 20,000 known species of bees in the world. Bees in East Africa include carpenter bees, Amegilla bees, stingless bees, longhorn bees, and honeybees.
These bees vary from each other physically—being of different sizes and shapes, and in their behaviour. Some wild bees nest in tree hollows, others build their nests underground; some will visit a variety of flowers to feed, others specialise, and feed from only one, or two families of flowers; many of these bees are active most of the day, while others may only be active in the early morning, or evening.
 Most wild bees are solitary, though some like honeybees and stingless bees are social. Wild bees mostly collect pollen and nectar from flowers but there are those that also collect oils, and other substances from flowers.
Other bee families commonly found in East Africa are the leafcutter bees, which use leaves to line their nests, and the halictid bees, which is a large, diverse family of bees.
Wild bees pollinate about two- thirds of the vegetables and fruits grown in East Africa, and are one of the most important groups of pollinators for all flowering plants in the world.

 Long-faced bee (Thrincostoma sp.) resting on a leaf at the edge of Kakamega Forest.
Most wild bees are solitary and females forage and provision nests on their own.

 Bees are the most diverse group of insect pollinators. TOP, LEFT TO RIGHT

1. An Amegilla on Leucas sp.2. Small carpenter bee (Ceratina sp.) on legume. 3.  Amegilla bee approaches some Cleome flowers,

 1. Amegilla spp. on Leucas. 2. Halictid bee on cultivated basil. 3. Amegilla spp. on Leucas.

 Honeybees

There are thousands of known species of bees in the world.
But when most people think of a bee, they think of a honeybee. Honeybees, Apis mellifera, are just one kind of bee. They are in the family Apidae. They live socially in large colonies, and are commonly kept in domestic beehives, or are found in the wild inside hollow trunks.
Honeybees visit flowers to feed on nectar and pollen, and collect these foods to take back to the hive. Honeybees make use of nectar to produce honey. It takes four worker honeybees their entire lives to produce just one teaspoonful of honey. From honeybees come other useful products including beeswax, propolis, royal jelly, and bee venom.
There is a long history between honeybees and humans.
African rock art depicting people harvesting wild honey date to thousands of years ago. Indeed, Honeybees originate in East Africa, and like humans migrated out of Africa to the rest of the world.
There are more wild varieties of honeybees in Africa than anywhere else in the world. In Kenya, there are two different kinds of honeybees:

Common Honeybee

This more familiar orange-and- black coloured bee is typically seen in grassland, bush, coastal, and forest areas.

Mountain Honeybee

This is a dark, chocolate- coloured honeybee that is adapted to the high altitude areas of Mount Kenya, the Aberdare range, and Mount Elgon where it can be found.
Honeybees pollinate many crops, herbs, wildflowers, and trees.
Honeybees have developed an exceptional method of communication through movement. When a honeybee returns to the hive, and wants to inform her fellow bees of how to find a particular area with flowers, she performs a special dance called a ‘waggle’ dance. This dance conveys three different things about a patch of wildflowers to the other worker honeybees: the direction (relative to the sun and hive), the distance (from the hive to the wildflowers), and the quality of the food (nectar and pollen).

   Honeybees on different flowers. TOP, LEFT TO RIGHT
Common honeybees (Apis mellifera scutellata) on Aloe sp., and Argemone mexicana.
  MIDDLE, LEFT TO RIGHT Mountain honeybee on Leucas sp., common honeybee on Bauhinia sp.
   BOTTOM, LEFT TO RIGHT Common honeybees on Euphorbia  sp., a member of the daisy family–Compositae sp., and cultivated basil (image cutout).

Stingless Bees

Like the honeybee, stingless bees are social, and live in colonies, each having a queen and workers. They are also called ‘Sweat Bees’ as they are attracted to the salt in human sweat, and hover around the ears and eyes of people in hot areas.
Stingless bees are smaller than honeybees, and live in hollow trees, rocks, and even termite mounds. They often make vertical tubes from resin at the entrances to their nests. Inside their nests, they have special pots in which they store honey, and separate areas for storing pollen, and housing the larvae.
There are places in East Africa, with a tradition of keeping stingless bees but the knowledge is not widespread. Many people simply harvest stingless bee nests by breaking open the nest, which results in the entire colony being killed. This is very destructive, and has led to the disappearance of stingless bees from some areas.
Stingless bees are very important pollinators as they rely entirely on flowers for nectar and pollen to feed their larvae. They pollinate many forest and dryland plants, and are also valued pollinators of strawberries, mango, and avocado.

Many people simply harvest stingless bee nests by breaking open the nest, which results in the entire colony being killed.

  Stingless bees.
TOP, LEFT TO RIGHT Stingless bee, Meliponula bocandei, robbing nectar from a rainforest Barleria flower, stingless bee hives for honey production at Kakamega Forest, and stingless bee drinking moisture from leaf.
  MIDDLE, LEFT TO RIGHT Close-up views inside the nest of the stingless bee Meliponula ferruginea.
BOTTOM, LEFT TO RIGHT Small stingless bee (Hypotrigona sp.), and large stingless bees–at their nest entrances.

Carpenter bees.
  TOP, LEFT TO RIGHT Carpenter bee, Xylocopa flavorufa, approaches a flowering Maerua, carpenter bees on a coastal Sterculiaceae sp.
MIDDLE, LEFT TO
RIGHT Carpenter bee on the flowering Sterculiaceae–note the large amounts of pollen on the bee’s body, Blue-eyed carpenter bee on Crotolaria sp. Carpenter bee approaching wild basil (Ocimum sp.).

Leafcutter bees

Leafcutter bees are named for their habit of cutting out circular pieces of leaves from cultivated plants. Leafcutters are stocky, robust bees with large eyes. They range in colour from grey to brown, and can be boldly marked with orange, white, red, or yellow. It is with the underside of their abdomen that they transport pollen.  When this is fully packed it is a bright patch of colour on their bellies— readily visible as they forage from flowers.
Mass-flowering trees such as acacias are among the wide range of plants visited by leafcutter bees. Wildflowers are visited for pollen and nectar, and leafcutter bees are especially efficient at ‘tripping’ the flowers of Crotolaria, Indigofera, Tephrosia, and other legume species.
Nests of leafcutter bees are distinctive and unique, constructed from overlapping circles of cut pieces of leaf taken from a variety of plants.
Generally those having fairly flat, smooth leaves are chosen, and are glued together with resin and waxy secretions. Nests can often be found on furniture, walls of buildings and other man-made structures.

Close-up of a freshly emerged leafcutter bee.

Various species of leafcutter bees in action.
  TOP, LEFT TO RIGHT Megachile sp. on Crotolaria, Gronocera hovering near pigeonpea.
MIDDLE, LEFT TO RIGHT Leafcutter bee gripping flower with its mandibles, leafcutter bee on Crotolaria.
LOWER MIDDLE, LEFT TO RIGHT Leafcutter bee cutting leaf-circles from a capsicum, large leafcutter bee approaches Crotolaria brevidens–note the large patch of pollen carried on the bee’s underside.
BOTTOM, LEFT TO RIGHT Leafcutter bee carrying leaf to nest.

Halictid Bees

This is a very large and diverse family of bees. They
are small to medium-sized bees, and are often the most common bees encountered visiting flowers. About one-third of bees in East Africa are halictids.
Halictid bees nest in cavities, primarily in the ground as well as in wood. Halictids also have a wide range of social behaviour. While the vast majority are solitary, a few
halictid bees have variable levels of social organisation including communal nesting, sharing nests, semi-social, and even those almost fully eusocial.
Eusocial bees are those like honeybees, with sterile workers who have given up reproducing, and instead support larvae from eggs laid by a fertile queen. This means that they are divided into a series of specialised castes.
Common genera of halictid bees in East Africa include Lipotriches, Nomia, Pseudapis, Lasioglossum Patellapis, Seladonia, Thrincostoma, Nomioides, Cellariella, and Ceylalictus. The biology, behaviour and diversity of most halictid bees in East Africa remains poorly studied.

 
 Halictid bee diversity.
  TOP, LEFT TO RIGHT Lasioglossum sp. on Justicia, long-faced bee Thrincostoma sp. on a member of the hibiscus family,
MIDDLE, LEFT TO RIGHT Systropha sp. at an Ipomoea flower, Nomia sp. approaching Solanum sp.
BOTTOM, LEFT TO RIGHT Tiny Nomioides in a flower of Tribulus terrestris.,Seladonia sp. visiting Bidens sp

 A ‘bee hotel’ may sound like a strange idea, but it is simply a nest for bees of different species. It offers a practical way of attracting pollinators to your farm, or garden. The bee hotel could consist of just a tube filled with hollow reeds, or be more complex.
Hollow reeds are very appealing to leafcutter bees, and other solitary bees. Larger hollow reeds, and dry wood will attract carpenter bees that are likely to use the nest from year to year.
Packed earth will draw a wide range of ground nesting bees.
Set your bee hotel at the edge of the farm, within strips of wildflowers, or even in erosion control areas where you have cultivated. Beans, cowpeas, pigeon peas, traditional vegetables, passionfruit, coffee, aubergines, tomatoes, watermelons, and pumpkins— are some of the crops that will benefit from the construction of your bee hotel.

C.NJOKI
 
 A bee hotel can be constructed from simple materials, and create nesting habitat for bees.

 Moths are not the only pollinators active in the dark—bats and bushbabies are mammals that feed during the night. Flowers that are pollinated by bats open in the evening, or during the night, contain nectar, and have a fruity scent.
The white flowers of baobab trees are a good example. Baobab trees are pollinated by fruit bats, and occasionally by bushbabies. Bats feed not only on the nectar, but also on flower parts, and any insects in the flower.
 In forest, over savannah, near farms or settlements, bats can travel great distances over a single night, and as they feed they may convey pollen from flower to flower pollinating many different trees along the way. Bats also pollinate sausage trees, mangoes, and bananas.

Bushbabies have very large eyes as they hunt at night, and feed on insects, acacia gum, seeds, bird eggs, fruit and flowers. When they feed on baobab flowers they eat parts of the flower, and while doing so take pollen from flower to flower.

Above Fruit bats resting inside a cave. Credit:P.ULSHER
Above RIGHT and BELOW Fruit bat, Yellow-winged bat at rest–this species mainly hawks insects at flowers.

P.ULSHER