Beetles were already pollinating the first flowers before bees evolved. Many of the flowers with an ancient lineage, including magnolia and spicebush, are beetle-pollinated, but so are many other flowers. Pawpaw, our largest native fruit, is beetle-pollinated. Beetle-pollinated flowers are often pale or dull in color, cup-shaped, and have a spicy or musky odor. Beetles are usually considered messy pollinators since they eat through flower parts as they pollinate. They are also regarded as inefficient pollinators. They feed on pollen, and as they feed, it sticks to their bodies, but since they are less hairy than other pollinators, the amount of pollen they move is less. However, astoundingly, beetles make up 40% of all known animals; by sheer numbers, they make up for this inefficiency.
For more information, see HGIC 1733, Native Pollinators.
Flower tumbling beetles on Stoke’s aster.
Sue Watts, ©2024, SC Botanical Gardens, Clemson University
Margined soldier beetle on wild quinine.
Sue Watts, ©2024, SC Botanical Gardens, Clemson University
Goldenrod soldier beetle eating primrose pollen
Sue Watts, ©2024, SC Botanical Gardens, Clemson University
Delta scarab beetle on rattlesnake master.
Sue Watts, ©2024, SC Botanical Gardens, Clemson University
