Pollen identification
To identify pollen carried by potential pollinators, the underside of
every insect collected in the months of February, April and June was
pressed onto a 3 mm cube of gelatine-fuchsin agar gel on a glass slide
(Kearns & Inouye 1993). The agar was then melted, and a slide coverslip
was placed on top. Pollen grains were observed at 100X magnification,
with all visible grains on the slide counted. We then used 400X
magnification to ensure appropriate pollen grain identification.
Individual pollen grains were photographed and identified to
family-level—the highest taxonomic resolution attainable as determined
by leading pollen experts—based on morphological characteristics using
the Australasian pollen and Spore Atlas (APSA 2017) and verified by an
expert palynologist (SH).