Meaning of oligolecty | Babel Free

Definitions

The preference of an insect pollinator (chiefly a bee) for pollinating only a few plant species.

uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“We have⟳, thus, a case where different types of bees are similarly adapted to oligolecty on a certain group of plants.”

“The most likely explanation for oligolecty in bees is not different from the explanation of specificity of any organism to its habitat; in fact, oligolecty is a form⟳ of host⟳ specificity.”

“In so far as now known, all of the species exhibit a high degree of oligolecty (or monolecty) being restricted in pollen collecting to a single genus of plants.”

“An individual of a polylectic species that takes pollen from only a few kinds of plants is showing flower constancy rather than oligolecty.”

“Once oligolecty was documented, the following two summers were used for field study⟳ of widely separated populations of I. pandurata.”

“That oligolecty exists is indisputable, but its application to particular bee species engenders confusion and debate⟳. […] We propose⟳ a definition of oligolecty that is sufficiently inclusive without diluting the intended meaning for undisputed cases: we define⟳ oligolecty as consistent and predictable reliance of a species on a few plant⟳ genera for their pollen needs.”

“In most studies sampling is limited to a few sites, and therefore oligolecty is dubiously assigned. Moreover, both abundant and minor pollen types are generally considered at a same level of importance.”

“The two most basal bee families, Dasypodaidae and Mellitidae, are predominantly composed of pollen specialists, indicating that oligolecty might be the ancestral state in bees[…]. In the western Palaearctic anthidiine bees, several transitions from oligolecty to polylecty were found, but none from polylecty to oligolecty[…].”

CEFR level