Most of New Zealand’s tall broadleaf trees depend on insects to pollinate their flowers. Native thrips – tiny insects – visit the small, green flowers of tawa to feed. While wandering over the flowers they pick up grains of pollen on their body and legs. This scanning electron photo shows five grains of tawa pollen on the leg of a thrips.
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
New Zealand Journal of Ecology
Reference:
Scott A. Norton, 'Thrips pollination in lowland forest in New Zealand.' New Zealand Journal of Ecology 7 (1984): fig. 1
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