What is shiver pollination?

Answer 1

Some of the world's top bee experts have since been kind enough to explain that what I heard was something far more remarkable than my feeble imaginings: "sonication," the bees' ability to shiver their muscles so quickly they emit vibrations powerful enough to knock pollen out of a flower, compact soil in their nests and scare the hell out of enemies a la rattlesnakes. The bees become, in the words of sonication expert Stephen Buchmann, "living tuning forks."1 Amazingly, these vibrations involve the wing muscles without the wings moving at all-the muscles are actually detached from the flight mechanism to create the buzz. Specifically, I was observing "buzz pollination," which is sonication applied to anthers inside a flower to shake the pollen loose. Several common plant families have anthers that have evolved, possibly in conjunction with the bees, to release pollen only through small holes in response to vibration, "like a salt or pepper shaker," as York University biologist Laurence Packer put it. Quoted from: http://obscurearchives.stupidquestion.net/bee.html Some of the world's top bee experts have since been kind enough to explain that what I heard was something far more remarkable than my feeble imaginings: "sonication," the bees' ability to shiver their muscles so quickly they emit vibrations powerful enough to knock pollen out of a flower, compact soil in their nests and scare the hell out of enemies a la rattlesnakes. The bees become, in the words of sonication expert Stephen Buchmann, "living Tuning Forks."1 Amazingly, these vibrations involve the wing muscles without the wings moving at all-the muscles are actually detached from the flight mechanism to create the buzz. Specifically, I was observing "buzz pollination," which is sonication applied to anthers inside a flower to shake the pollen loose. Several common plant families have anthers that have evolved, possibly in conjunction with the bees, to release pollen only through small holes in response to vibration, "like a salt or pepper shaker," as York University biologist Laurence Packer put it. Quoted from: http://obscurearchives.stupidquestion.net/bee.html