Editing Coevolution (section)

====Insects and insect-pollinated flowers====
{{Further|Entomophily}}
[[File:Apis mellifera - Melilotus albus - Keila.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Honey bee]] taking a reward of [[nectar]] and collecting pollen in its [[pollen basket]]s from [[Melilotus albus|white melilot]] flowers]]

Modern [[entomophily|insect-pollinated (entomophilous) flowers]] are conspicuously coadapted with insects to ensure pollination and in return to reward the [[pollinator]]s with nectar and pollen. The two groups have coevolved for over 100 million years, creating a complex network of interactions. Either they evolved together, or at some later stages they came together, likely with pre-adaptations, and became mutually adapted.<ref name=Lunau>{{cite journal |last=Lunau |first=Klaus |title=Adaptive radiation and coevolution — pollination biology case studies |journal=Organisms Diversity & Evolution |date=2004 |volume=4 |issue=3 |pages=207–224 |doi=10.1016/j.ode.2004.02.002 |doi-access= |bibcode=2004ODivE...4..207L }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Pollan |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Pollan |title=The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-eye View of the World |publisher=Bloomsbury |isbn=978-0-7475-6300-6 |title-link=The Botany of Desire |year=2003}}</ref>

Several highly successful [[insect]] groups—especially the [[Hymenoptera]] (wasps, bees and ants) and [[Lepidoptera]] (butterflies and moths) as well as many types of [[Diptera]] (flies) and [[Coleoptera]] (beetles)—evolved in conjunction with [[flowering plant]]s during the [[Cretaceous]] (145 to 66 million years ago). The earliest bees, important pollinators today, appeared in the early Cretaceous.<ref name=Bristol>{{cite web |title=Coevolution of angiosperms and insects |url=http://palaeo.gly.bris.ac.uk/Palaeofiles/Angiosperms/coevolution.htm |publisher=University of Bristol Palaeobiology Research Group |access-date=16 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220033247/http://palaeo.gly.bris.ac.uk/Palaeofiles/Angiosperms/coevolution.htm |archive-date=20 December 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref> A group of wasps [[sister clade|sister]] to the bees evolved at the same time as flowering plants, as did the Lepidoptera.<ref name=Bristol/> Further, all the major [[clade]]s of bees first appeared between the middle and late Cretaceous, simultaneously with the adaptive radiation of the [[eudicots]] (three quarters of all angiosperms), and at the time when the angiosperms became the world's dominant plants on land.<ref name="CardinalDanforth2013">{{cite journal |last1=Cardinal |first1=Sophie |last2=Danforth |first2=Bryan N. |title=Bees diversified in the age of eudicots |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society B |date=2013 |doi=10.1098/rspb.2012.2686 |volume=280 |issue=1755 |pages=20122686 |pmid=23363629 |pmc=3574388}}</ref>

At least three aspects of flowers appear to have coevolved between flowering plants and insects, because they involve communication between these organisms. Firstly, flowers communicate with their pollinators by scent; insects use this scent to determine how far away a flower is, to approach it, and to identify where to land and finally to feed. Secondly, flowers attract insects with patterns of stripes leading to the rewards of nectar and pollen, and colours such as blue and ultraviolet, to which their eyes are sensitive; in contrast, bird-pollinated flowers tend to be red or orange. Thirdly, flowers such as [[Ophrys|some orchids]] mimic females of particular insects, deceiving males into [[pseudocopulation]].<ref name=Bristol/><ref name=Pijl>{{cite book |first1=Leendert |last1=van der Pijl |first2=Calaway H. |last2=Dodson |title=Orchid Flowers: Their Pollination and Evolution |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/orchidflowersthe0000pijl |chapter-url-access=registration |chapter=Chapter 11: Mimicry and Deception |publisher=[[University of Miami]] Press |location=Coral Gables |year=1966 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/orchidflowersthe0000pijl/page/129 129–141] |isbn=978-0-87024-069-0}}</ref>

The [[yucca]], ''Yucca whipplei'', is pollinated exclusively by ''Tegeticula maculata'', a [[Tegeticula|yucca moth]] that depends on the yucca for survival.<ref>{{cite web|title=Pollination Partnerships Fact Sheet |work=Flora of North America |year=2004 |first=Claire |last= Hemingway |page= 2|url=http://fna.huh.harvard.edu/files/imported/Outreach/FNAfs_yucca.pdf |quote=Yucca and Yucca Moth|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110817052152/http://fna.huh.harvard.edu/files/imported/Outreach/FNAfs_yucca.pdf |archive-date = 17 August 2011}}</ref> The moth eats the seeds of the plant, while gathering pollen. The pollen has evolved to become very sticky, and remains on the mouth parts when the moth moves to the next flower. The yucca provides a place for the moth to lay its eggs, deep within the flower away from potential predators.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pellmyr |first1=Olle |last2=Leebens-Mack |first2=James |title=Forty million years of mutualism: Evidence for Eocene origin of the yucca-yucca moth association |journal=PNAS |date=August 1999 |pmid=10430916 |volume=96 |issue=16 |pmc=17753 |pages=9178–9183 |bibcode=1999PNAS...96.9178P |doi=10.1073/pnas.96.16.9178 |doi-access=free }}</ref>