Pollinator Pollinator A pollinator is an animal that moves pollen from the male anther of a flower to the female stigma of a flower. This helps to bring about fertilization of the ovules in the flower by the male gametes from the pollen grains. Insect pollinators include bees, (honey bees, solitary species, bumblebees); pollen wasps (Masarinae); ants; flies including bee flies, hoverflies and mosquitoes; lepidopterans, both butterflies and moths; and flower beetles. Vertebrates, mainly bats and birds, but also some non-bat mammals (monkeys, lemurs, possums, rodents) and some lizards pollinate certain plants. Among the pollinating birds are hummingbirds, honeyeaters and sunbirds
Pollen DNA barcoding that has grown in popularity due to the decreased costs associated with "next generation sequencing" (NGS) techniques and is being continually improved in efficiency including through the use of a dual-indexing approach. Some of the other major advantages include the savings in time and resources compared to microscopic identification. Identifying pollen is time consuming involving spreading pollen on a slide, staining the pollen to improve visibility, then focusing in on individual pollen grains and identifying them based on size, shape, as well as the shape and number of pores. If a pollen reference library is not available, then pollen has