Megachile bee pollinating Egg and Bacon Plant

©Phil Warb

Megachile sp.
Family: Megachilidae
Order: Hymenoptera

On Egg and Bacon Plant, in the pea-flower family Fabaceae

Sometimes, it is nice to photograph an insect interacting with its environment. For that, you often won’t get the chance to use a macro lens up close to the event that you are observing. You may need to use a telephoto lens and need to be prepared to take a shot when the opportunity presents.

In this photograph we have an event that is well known but is seldom photographed: the pollination of an ‘Egg and Bacon’ plant.

The Egg and Bacon plants have a remarkable mechanism for pollinating the flowers. When an insect, of appropriate weight, lands on the 'keel' part of the flower, the flower's reproductive organs spring out from the end of the keel, under which they were hidden. Pollen exchange then takes place, at a precise place on the end of the insect’s abdomen. Megachile bees seem to be amongst the pollinators for this plant, and this is borne out by this photographic example. Here the bee had landed on the keel, and we can see the end of the abdomen of the bee brushing against the anthers of the flower collecting pollen. Similarly, pollen from other flowers is transferred to the stigma from the same, very precise, point on the abdomen.

Smaller bees do not trigger the mechanism and introduced European honeybees, Apis mellifera seem not to be attracted to the flowers. Thus, the plant has a very efficient method of transferring pollen to another plant with little waste.

The Megachile genus contains Leafcutter, Mortar and Resin Bees. Worldwide, this is one of the largest genera with 1500 species in 50 subgenera.

Like the Apidae family, the Megachildae family have long glossa (tongues).