Individual Hymenoptera, Diptera, and Coleoptera were collected on a diversity of flowering plants found in the U.S. Forest Service Tenderfoot Creek Experimental Forest of Montana. We created a pollen reference collection from 83 plant species of the area, and used it to identify pollen removed from the bodies of insects. The pollen types identified varied both within and between insect taxa. Insects of some taxa appeared to collect pollen from relatively few species (e.g. bees of Megachile sp. and Dufourea sp. visiting Campanula rotundifolia). The most common type of pollen collected by bumblebees (Bombus) varied among individuals. The pollen from insects captured on one plant species was often from multiple plant species, suggesting low flower constancy during foraging in some insects. As expected, bees typically carried greater quantities of pollen than flies or beetles. Individual syrphid flies and cerambycid beetles carried as many as seven pollen types, but usually relatively small quantities of pollen.
Keywords: pollen
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