Nectar robbery in some South Indian Lamiaceae

Abstract

Many insect species were visiting flowers, among those visors very few were considered as pollinators. Some species of bees have learnt to steal nectar from flowers without pollinating them. To do this, the bee will make a hole in the flower near to the source of the nectar. If flowers have been robbed, they will usually have a neat circular or semi-circular hole near their base, close to where the nectar is produced. Once holes have been made by the robbers, other insects may also use them. For example, honeybees and ants have been seen using holes made by bumble bees. This paper mainly deals with nectar robbery in Lamiaceae. Here we observed nectar robbing strategy of some insect species 1.  Amegilla sp on Orthosiphon aristatus, here insect make hole in the corolla tube. 2. Nectar robbing method of Wasp on Orthosiphon thymiflorus, 3. Ant, Oecophylla alba on Leucas aspera. 4. Wasp on Oscimum filamentosum. 5. Trigona sp robbing on Orthosiphon thymiflorus.