Just what proportion of pollinating is done by pollinators other than honey bees? Losey and Vaughn attempt to quantify it:

> Authors make generalizations about the proportion of pollination attributed to various insect groups, mostly honey bees. These generalizations are essentially educated guesses of the percentage of necessary pollination provided by insects, and as such, they are likely to be inaccurate. The proportions that could be attributed to native, as opposed to managed, pollinators will vary widely for each crop, depending on geographic location, availability of natural habitat, and use of pesticides.

And yet, as I have shown in previous posts, Xerces bases their ENTIRE argument on the work done by studies on honey bee pollinators, studies which they here refer to as "educated guesses". They go on to say "The proportions that could be attributed to native pollinators will vary widely". Of course, they "could be", they could also be attributed to other agents like wind. While not mentioning it specifically, wind is not absent from these estimates.

Peter Borst

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