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Species interdependence in nature confers many benefits on the species involved， but it can also become a point of weakness when one species involved in the relationship is affected by a catastrophe. Thus， flowering plant species dependent on insect pollination， as opposed to self-pollination or wind pollination， could be endangered when the population of insect-pollinators is depleted by the use of pesticides.
In the forests of New Brunswick， for example， various pesticides have been sprayed in the past 25 years in efforts to control the spruce budworm， an economically significant pest. Scientists have now investigated the effects of the spraying of Matacil， one of the anti-budworm agents that is least toxic to insect-pollinators. They studied Matacil’s effects on insect mortality in a wide variety of wild insect species and on plant fecundity， expressed as the percentage of the total flowers on an individual plant that actually developed fruit and bore seeds. They found that the most pronounced mortality after the spraying of Matacil occurred among the smaller bees and one family of flies， insects that were all important pollinators of numerous species of plants growing beneath the tree canopy of forests. The fecundity of plants in one common indigenous species， the red-osier dogwood， was significantly reduced in
the sprayed areas as compared to that of plants in control plots where Matacil was not sprayed. This species is highly dependent on the insect-pollinators most vulnerable to Matacil. The creeping dogwood， a species similar to the red-osier dogwood， but which is pollinated by large bees， such as bumblebees， showed no significant decline in fecundity. Since large bees are not affected by the spraying of Matacil， these results add weight to the argument that spraying where the pollinators are sensitive to the pesticide used decreases plant fecundity.
Species interdependence in nature confers many benefits on the species involved， but it can also become a point of weakness when one species involved in the relationship is affected by a catastrophe. Thus， flowering plant species dependent on insect pollination， as opposed to self-pollination or wind pollination， could be endangered when the population of insect-pollinators is depleted by the use of pesticides.
In the forests of New Brunswick， for example， various pesticides have been sprayed in the past 25 years in efforts to control the spruce budworm， an economically significant pest. Scientists have now investigated the effects of the spraying of Matacil， one of the anti-budworm agents that is least toxic to insect-pollinators. They studied Matacil’s effects on insect mortality in a wide variety of wild insect species and on plant fecundity， expressed as the percentage of the total flowers on an individual plant that actually developed fruit and bore seeds. They found that the most pronounced mortality after the spraying of Matacil occurred among the smaller bees and one family of flies， insects that were all important pollinators of numerous species of plants growing beneath the tree canopy of forests. The fecundity of plants in one common indigenous species， the red-osier dogwood， was significantly reduced in
the sprayed areas as compared to that of plants in control plots where Matacil was not sprayed. This species is highly dependent on the insect-pollinators most vulnerable to Matacil. The creeping dogwood， a species similar to the red-osier dogwood， but which is pollinated by large bees， such as bumblebees， showed no significant decline in fecundity. Since large bees are not affected by the spraying of Matacil， these results add weight to the argument that spraying where the pollinators are sensitive to the pesticide used decreases plant fecundity.
