Flower-Visiting Insects
of Northern Pitcher
Plant
Sarracenia purpurea (Northern Pitcher Plant)
(bees suck nectar or collect pollen; adults of the Pitcher Plant fly, Fletcherimyia fletcheri, find shelter in the flowers and become covered with pollen; ants are attracted to the nectar of the extrafloral nectaries on the slippery lip of the pitcher and they fall into the watery fluid of the pitcher; the bees and flies are effective at cross-pollination as they fly from flower-to-flower, while the decaying bodies of the ants provide nutrients to this predacious plant; observations are from Thien & Marcks, Ne'eman et al., and Wilhelm & Rericha as indicated below)
Bees (long-tongued)
Apidae (Bombini): Bombus spp. sn (TM), Bombus affinis cp (NNE)
Bees (short-tongued)
Halictidae (Halictinae): Augochlorella aurata sn cp (NNE)
Ants
Formicidae (Dolichoderinae): Dolichoderus pustulatus sn@exfl (WR), Tapinoma sessile sn@exfl (WR); Formicidae (Formicinae): Camponotus nearcticus sn@exfl (WR); Formicidae (Myrmicinae): Myrmica lobifrons sn@exfl (WR)
Flies
Sarcophagidae: Fletcherimyia fletcheri shl (NNE)