Pronuba

The larva of the Pronuba moth feeds on the developing yucca seeds; to ensure that the seeds develop, the female moth gathers the sticky pollen of the yucca and carries it to another flower.

Did you know? Agaves function as Mexico's 7-Elevens 2003

The larva of the Pronuba moth feeds on the developing yucca seeds; to ensure that the seeds develop, the female moth gathers the sticky pollen of the yucca and carries it to another flower.

Did you know? Agaves function as Mexico's 7-Elevens 2003

Maxillary tentacle: in female Pronuba: a specialized process of palpifer.

Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology John. B. Smith

For a long time it seemed as if an exception to this rule existed in the case of the fertilisation of the yucca blossoms by a little moth, _Pronuba yuccasella_.

Evolution in Modern Thought Gustav Schwalbe 1880

There is thus nothing to prevent our referring this structural adaptation in _Pronuba yuccasella_ to processes of selection, which have gradually transformed the maxillary palps of the female into the sickle-shaped instrument for collecting the pollen, and which have at the same time developed in the insect the instinct to press the pollen into the pistil.

Evolution in Modern Thought Gustav Schwalbe 1880

I must write half a dozen lines to say how much interested I have been by your "Further Notes" on Pronuba which you were so kind as to send me.

More Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 2 Charles Darwin 1845

Riley discovered the remarkable fact that the Yucca moth (Pronuba yuccasella) lays its eggs in the ovary of Yucca flowers, which it has previously pollinated, thus making sure of a supply of ovules for the larvae.), for I have shown that the cross-fertilisation of the flowers on the same plant does very little good; and, if I am not mistaken, you believe that Pronuba gathers pollen from the same flower which she fertilises.

More Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 2 Charles Darwin 1845

If you make any further observation on Pronuba it would, I think, be well worth while for you to observe whether the moth can or does occasionally bring pollen from one plant to the stigma of a distinct one (706A/3.

More Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 2 Charles Darwin 1845