Pollinators -- Incidental, accidental and purposeful
Published November 7, 2026, in the McAllen Monitor.
Story and photos by Anita Westervelt, Texas Master Naturalist
This week wrapped up the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s annual Texas Pollinator Bioblitz.
A lot of unusual creatures pollinate flowers, not just bees and butterflies. Flies and wasps are pollinators, too. My friends and I laughed at some of the insect names we photographed and uploaded to the iNaturalist.org database for the bioblitz. It was interesting to discover which bugs qualified as pollinators under the project parameters.
A tiny bug I photographed identified as common micropanther. I later photographed its close relative, blackbeard micropanther. They are not tiny panthers in the cat family, they are small robber flies.
Robber flies are frequently at rest, waiting. When working, they are aggressive, agile aerial predators that capture small flying insects in mid-air. They are beneficial pest controllers. They are not true pollinators, but incidental contact pollinators. Robber flies are attractive, in an artful, bristly sort of way.
Some insects have only scientific names, no common name, like Nemotelus kansensis, a soldier fly. Soldier flies are flower pollinators; they drink nectar and move pollen from plant to plant.
Wasps inadvertently transfer pollen as they search for nectar, like the digger wasp, Sphex dorsalis, an underground nesting wasp.
Some 20 percent of beetle species are pollinators; among the planet’s oldest insect pollinators, they coexisted with dinosaurs and predated bees and butterflies by tens of millions of years, according to an online Xerces Society Pollinator Guide, at xerces.org.
Beetles vary greatly in size, some are as small as a pin head. The giant waterbug measures four and one-half inches in length. Beetles are not especially efficient, but they are essential pollinators. They visit flowers to eat pollen, nectar and petals, unintentionally transferring pollen in their wake. Waterbugs pollinate aquatic and semi-aquatic flowers.
Many moths are pollinators and some are not. The last day of the project, I was awakened at 4 a.m. by a hungry cat who was not going to ascribe to the time change. Since I was up, I checked my moth sheet and got an amazing surprise – a big, beautiful, colorful, exotic looking moth – one I thought I would never have the opportunity, nor luck, to see: a calleta silkmoth.
Although the bioblitz database included the species in my observations for the project, the calleta silkmoth is not a pollinator. Like other giant silkmoths in the Saturniidae family, in the adult stage, these moths have nonfunctional mouthparts. They do not feed, instead, they spend their brief lives (one to two weeks) focusing on finding a mate and laying eggs.
Interestingly, the females are nocturnal and the males are diurnal. Calleta silkmoths break out of their cocoons during evening and night. Newly emerged females release pheromones into the air; male silkmoths’ antennae are covered in sensitive receptors. The female’s scent can be picked up sometimes from miles away. Mating begins at daybreak until noon. Females begin depositing eggs on leaves of a host plant beginning at dusk on the same day they mate.
Calleta silkmoths are found in south and west Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Mexico and Guatemala. Host plants in the Rio Grande Valley, are Texas sage, also called cenizo, Leucophyllum frutescens; esperanza, or yellow bells, Tecoma stans; and in the wild, ash trees, Fraxinus berlandieriana.
Below photos: At daylight, I gently transferred the moth from the back of the moth sheet, near the ground, to a nearby bushy esperanza so it wouldn't be obvious prey. It quickly went on its way. (Photos by Anita Westervelt)
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