In lab experiments and field studies, the team tracked the beetles with fluorescent dyes as they moved from cone to cone.

Insects are the primary pollinators of most flowers and crops. Niklas_Weidner/500px via Getty Images Rachel Mallinger: A lot of different insects pollinate. Insects visit flowers for many purposes, ...

We tend to think of plants as passive, vulnerable actors. But in their partnership with insects, it’s plants that often play ...

Spring flowers have co-evolved with insect pollinators for a long time. The flowers require pollen delivery to set seed. To entice insects to visit and deliver the pollen, they produce food rewards ...

While many modern plants use colorful flowers to attract pollinators, ancient palm-like plants called cycads lure them by ...

Many plants, from crops to carnations, cannot bear fruit or reproduce without bees, beetles, butterflies and other insects to pollinate them. But the population of insect pollinators is dropping in ...

Using a mobile stamen to slap away insect visitors maximizes pollination and minimizes costs to flowers, a study shows. For centuries scientists have observed that when a visiting insect's tongue ...

It can be hard to get bees to do their vital work in indoor farms or greenhouses. Instead, the plants may need a little robotic assistance to reproduce. Out in a field, tomato plants are pollinated ...

Chris Wyver is a PhD student at the University of Reading. He receives funding from the Waitrose Collaborative Training Partnership and BBSRC. Laura Reeves works for the University of Reading. she ...

Most people have done it. You see something small and wiggly on a plant, your brain says “bug = bad,” and your hand is ...

Self-pollinating plants have male and female parts, allowing the pollen to travel from the anther in the stamen to the stigma in the pistil. These plants can be fertilized without the help of ...

Native plants that bloom in late summer and early fall provide a crucial nectar source for pollinators like bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Plant late-summer blooming flowers to help attract ...