Bees
Butterflies
While butterflies are not as efficient at pollination as bees — their long, thin legs and slight bodies can't collect and carry as much pollen — they get the job done nonetheless. They also enjoy a number of advantages those busy buzzers can't claim. For one thing, they can see red, which bees cannot, sending them after more brightly colored blooms. Also, butterflies emit certain pheromone scents that attract the opposite sex. These scents are very similar to those of certain flowers — unsurprisingly, flowers that other butterflies are drawn to. (Texas A&M University)
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Bats
When the sun goes down, bats come out to continue pollination while the day shift goes to sleep. Bats are important pollinators of cacti and agave in deserts, and of all manner of vegetation in rain forests. The next time you go grocery shopping for fruits and vegetables, you should thank bats, since they're responsible for pollinating avocados, bananas, carob, cashews, cloves, dates, durian, figs, guavas, mangoes, peaches and more. (Bat Conservation International)
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Ants
Ants can be seen visiting flowers frequently, and they do pollinate to a certain degree, although the mutualistic relationship is more one-sided than usual. Since most ants can't fly, they don't access flowers as easily as animals who can; instead, ants have to crawl over plants and into flowers directly. For this reason, ants are most effective as pollinators for plants growing low to the ground, with flowers that are close to the stem. In other species of plant, ants may actually do more harm than good, because they will eat the nectar without pollinating, effectively failing to keep their side of nature's mutualistic bargain. (American Journal of Botany)
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Beetles
Bees and perhaps hummingbirds get all the glory and attention for pollinating flowers, but beetles are the real workhorses, pollinating more flowering plants — 88 percent — than any other animal. As some beetle species are hundreds of millions of years old, they are also some of the first creatures to ever pollinate plants and, today, continue to pollinate the oldest flowers still in existence. Research has demonstrated that beetles are capable of color vision, but they are more attracted to flowers by scent. (The Mulch)
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Rodents
The flowers of certain species of protea plants, aka "sugarbushes," are uniquely adapted to pollination by rodents like spiny mice. Birds reject sugarbush nectar because it contains too much of a sugar called xylose, which spiny mice are able to digest. In turn, the sugarbushes provide plenty of nectar and pollen for the spiny mice to eat when other food sources are scarce. Other small rodents act as pollinators for these plants, but spiny mice are perhaps their primary pollinators. (Pollinators)
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Lemurs
Lemurs probably aren't the first animals that come to mind when you think of pollination, but many lemur species pollinate flowers. In fact, black-and-white ruffed lemurs are the largest pollinators on Earth. Other lemur pollinators include dwarf lemurs, mongoose lemurs and red-ruffed lemurs. Red-ruffed lemurs eat a diet of fruit and pollen (and some leaves, when nectar is scarce during dry seasons.) When they stick their noses into flowers for nectar, pollen collects on their snouts, and they transfer it from flower to flower. Sadly, the trees that are essential to the lemurs' diet are also desirable for logging purposes, so deforestation is a significant problem for these animals. (Duke Lemur Center)
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