Nectar
Nectar is a sugar-rich liquid produced by plants in glands called
nectaries, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollinating animals, or by
extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to animal mutualists, which in turn provide antiherbivore protection. Common nectar-consuming pollinators include bees, butterflies and moths, hummingbirds, and bats. Nectar plays an important role in the foraging economics and overall evolution of nectar-eating species; for example, nectar and its properties are responsible for the differential evolution of the African honey bee,
A. m. scutellata and the western honey bee. Nectar is an ecologically important item, the sugar source for honey. It is also useful in agriculture and horticulture because the adult stages of some predatory insects, such as almost all solitary wasps, feed on nectar. In turn, these wasps then hunt agricultural pest insects as food for their young. For example, thread-waisted wasps are known for hunting caterpillars that are destructive to crops. Nectar secretion increases as the flower is visited by pollinators.