Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Pollinator |
PollinatorNoun1. An insect that carries pollen from one flower to another. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The most recognized pollinators are the various species of bees, which are wonderfully adapted to pollination. Bees are fuzzy and carry an electrostatic charge. Both features help pollen grains adhere to their bodies. Bees often also have a pollen carrying structure such as the corbicula of honeybees and bumblebees (also known as the pollen basket), or the scopa of the lower abdomen of megachilid bees, made up of thick bristles. Bees gather pollen, which is high protein food, to nurture their young, and inadvertantly transfer some among the flowers as they are working.
Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths also pollinate. Because they are so long tongued and delicate, they are not major pollinators of our food crops, but are important for some wildflowers.
Many other insects accomplish some pollination. Wasps, bombyliid flies and syrphid flies are important pollinators. Beetles, and even thrips or ants can sometimes pollinate self fertile flowers. Blue bottle or carrion flies are important for some flowers, usually ones that exude a fetid odor.
Bats are important pollinators of some tropical flowers. Birds, particularly hummingbirds also accomplish much pollination, especially of deep throated flowers. One can often guess what are the primary pollinators of a particular blossom by its characteristics, the size, the depth of the corolla, the color (including patterns called nectar guides that are visible only in ultraviolet light), the scent, etc. Flowers have even been known to "trick" a pollinator, for example by emitting a sex pheromone for a bee or moth that entices the male to try to mate with the flower, thus accomplishing pollination.
Even humans can be pollinators, as many gardeners have discovered that they must hand pollinate garden vegetables, because of pollinator decline. This can involve using a small brush or cotton swab to move pollen, or to simply tap or shake tomato blossoms to release the pollen for the self pollenizing. Tomato blossom are self fertile, but have the pollen inside the anther, and the flower requires shaking to release the pollen through pores. This can be done by wind, by humans, or by a sonicating bee (one that vibrates its wing muscles while perched on the flower), such as a bumblebee. Sonicating bees are extremely efficient pollinators of tomatoes, and colonies of bumblebees are quickly replacing humans with vibrators as the primary pollinators for greenhouse tomatoes.
Many kinds of pollinators, from blue bottle flies, to bumblebees, and leaf cutter bees are cultured and sold for managed pollination. Millions of hives of honeybees are also rented out as pollinators by beekeepers.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Pollinator."
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | This bee, Osmia ribifloris (on a barberry flower), is an effective pollinator of commercial blueberries and is one of several relatives of the blue orchard bee, Osmia lignaria. Similar in appearance, the blue orchard bee is also a successful commercial pollinator that is now being evaluated for use in a wider range of crops. P. Credit: USDA ARS News; photo by Jack Dykinga.. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| "Pollinator" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Pollinator" is used about 19 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 19 | 80,337 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "pollinator": pollinator-pollinated. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
pollinator | 6 |
case pollinator space | 6 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "pollinator"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | hanlig bestøverranke (male vine, pollen giver), bestøvningsredskab, bestøverplante, bestøver, bestøvende insekt (pollinating insect, polliniferous insect). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | pollenbuis, bestuiver (male vine, pollen giver), bestuivend insekt (pollinating insect, polliniferous insect). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | pölyttävä viiniköynnös (male vine, pollen giver), pölyttävä hyönteinen (pollinating insect, polliniferous insect), pölyttäjä, hedeyksilö (male vine, pollen giver). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | pollinisateur, insecte pollinisateur (pollinating insect, polliniferous insect), donneur du pollen (pollen giver), cep mâle (pollen giver). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Pollenspender (male vine, pollen giver), männliche Rebe (male vine, pollen giver), Bestäubungsgerät, bestäubendes Insekt (pollinating insect, polliniferous insect). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | έντομο επικονιαστής (pollinating insect, polliniferous insect), γονιμοποιητήρας, γονιμοποιητής (male vine, pollen giver), επικονιαστήρας, επικονιαστής δότης γύρεως, αρσενικό κλήμα (male vine, pollen giver). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | vite impollinatrice (male vine, pollen giver), vite a fiori maschili (male vine, pollen giver), insetto pronubo (pollinating insect, polliniferous insect), insetto impollinatore (pollinating insect, polliniferous insect), impollinatore. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | ollinatorpay polinizador, insecto polinizador (pollinating insect, polliniferous insect), garfo (fork, prong, scion, set, yoke), dador do pólen. (various references) опылитель (fertilizer). (various references) polinizador, insecto polinizador (pollinating insect, polliniferous insect), donadora de polen (male vine, pollen giver), cepa masculina (male vine, pollen giver). (various references) pollinerande insekt (pollinating insect, polliniferous insect), pollengivare (male vine, pollen giver), hanlig vinranka (male vine, pollen giver). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "pollinator": pollinators. (additional references) | |
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"Pollinator" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Podlington, polluantur, Polyatom. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-i-l-l-n-o-o-p-r-t" | |
-2 letters: antiroll, optional, pliotron, tornillo, troopial. | |
-3 letters: atropin, litoral, oration, ortolan, patroon, platoon, polaron, portion, pronota, rolltop, trollop. | |
-4 letters: apollo, aroint, latino, lintol, lotion, oorali, option, pallor, parton, patrol, patron, pillar, plaint, pliant, pontil, portal, potion, prolan, pronto, proton, ration, ratlin, ratoon, rialto, tailor, talion, tarpon, trinal, tropin. | |
-5 letters: allot, aloin, aport, apron, atoll, atrip. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-i-l-l-n-o-o-p-r-t" | |
+1 letter: pollinators. | |
+3 letters: explorational, operationally, periodontally, probationally. | |
+4 letters: proportionally. | |
+5 letters: anisotropically, anthropological, prepositionally. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)50 6F 6C 6C 69 6E 61 74 6F 72 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references).--. --- .-.. .-.. .. -. .- - --- .-. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01010000 01101111 01101100 01101100 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110100 01101111 01110010 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)P o l l i n a t o r |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0050 006F 006C 006C 0069 006E 0061 0074 006F 0072 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)50817878758067868184 |
| Language | Coverage | Language Translations |
Danish | ordbog, deskriptordefinition, oversættelse | tanskalainen, danois, dänisch, δανικόσ, δανόσ, danese, dinamarquês, датский, danés, dansk |
Dutch | woordenboek, definitie, translatie | hollandsk, hollantilainen, néerlandais, holländisch, ολλανδικόσ, ολλανδόσ, olandese, holandês, голландский, holandés, holländsk |
Finnish | määritelmä, translaatio, taajuusmuutos | suomi, suomalainen, finnois, Finlandaise, finlandais, finnisch, φινλανδικόσ, finlandese, finlandês, finês, финский, finlandés, finés, finsk |
French | dictionnaire, définition, traduction | ranskalainen, français, französisch, γαλλικόσ, γαλλική γλώσσα, γαλλίδα, γάλλοσ, francese, francês, французский, francés, fransk, franska |
German | Übersetzung, Wörterbuch, Definition | tysker, Duitse, saksalainen, allemand, "ερμανός, tedesco, alemão, немецкий, alemán, tysk |
Greek | λεξικό, ορισμός, μετάφραση | græker, kreikkalainen, grec, grieche, ελληνικόσ, 'Ελληνας, greco, grego, греческий, грек, griego, grek |
Italian | dizionario, definizione, traduzione | italiener, italialainen, italien, italienisch, Ιταλός, italiano, итальянский язык, итальянец, итальянский, italiensk, italienska, italienare |
Portuguese | dicionário, definição, tradução | portugiser, portugalilainen, portugais, portugiesisch, πορτογάλοσ, ορτογάλος, portoghese, português, португальский, portugués, portugis |
Russian | словарь, определение, трансляция, сдвиг, перевод, перемещение | russer, venäläinen, Russe, russisch, Ρώσος, russo, русский, ruso, ryss |
Spanish | diccionario, definición, traducción | Spaans, espanjalainen, espagnol, spanisch, ισπανικά, ισπανικόσ, ισπανοί, spagnolo, espanhol, испанский, español, spanska språk, spansk |
Swedish | ordbok, lexikon, översättning | Zweeds, ruotsalainen, suédois, schwedisch, σουηδικόσ, σουηδικά, svedese, шведский, sueco, svensk |
English | Dictionary, Definition, Translation | englantia, englantilainen, anglais, englisch, εγγλέζοσ, αγγλικόσ, inglese, inglês, английский, inglés, engelsk |
| 1. Definition 2. Usage: Commercial 3. Images: Slideshow 4. Images: Photo Album | 5. Usage Frequency 6. Expressions 7. Expressions: Internet 8. Translations: Modern | 9. Derivations 10. Anagrams 11. Orthography 12. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
