Discoveries

June 23, 2023

Unsung Heroes

Listen to Today's Edition

Most researchers acknowledge bees and butterflies as the main pollinators that fly from different flowers and help fertilize plants.

But scientists recently discovered that a tiny beetle species – long thought of as a pest – also serves as an important pollinator, Popular Science reported.

When one thinks of weevils, one imagines bugs that feed on pasta and flour in pantries. These herbivores were also responsible for disrupting the cotton economy in the southern United States between 1889 and 1920.

A new study is shedding new light on how weevils contribute to pollination.

A research team analyzed 600 species of weevils by reviewing hundreds of studies about how the beetles and plants interact with each other. They focused on brood-site pollinators – insects use the same plants that they pollinate as the site to breed their larvae.

In the case of weevils, the team explained that the creatures would spend their life cycle feeding and laying eggs on one specific plant, but also pollinating it in the process.

Co-author Bruno de Medeiros noted that this relationship is beneficial for both the plant and the bug, helping both flourish. One clear example of it can be seen in the palm oil industry.

“Palm oil, which is used to make peanut butter and Nutella, was not a viable industry until someone figured out that the weevils found with them were their pollinators,” he said in a statement. “And because people had an incorrect preconception that weevils were not pollinators, it took much, much longer than it could have taken.”

Medeiros hopes that the findings can coax the scientific community and the public to change their preconception of these humble, unsung heroes.

This story originally appeared in the June 23, 2023 newsletter, The Fix Is In.