The Pollen Feeders

Most, if not all, major classes of arthropod predators and parasitoids contain members that consume pollen in some fashion. Given the tremendous diversity of entomophagous arthropods, it is necessary to curtail the list of species treated in this chapter. To this end, the focus of this chapter is primarily on taxa for which the ecological function of the group is fairly well understood or where importance to biological control is demonstrated. While the scope of this review is intended to be comprehensive, the state of the literature on this topic prevents an entirely exhaustive treatment. Thus please view this as an attempt to point out the diversity of pollen feeding taxa, and the range of pollens that they are known to consume.