[Pollinator] drones as pollinators

[Peter Bernhardt]

It might be best to write this letter in the vein of, "well this is cute
but whacking a flower with a drone isn't enough to effect pollination at
this moment in technology." Many of our crop plants still require
cross-pollintation (e.g. most apples and those pretty lilies) so the drone
must contact individual plants compatible with each other  and have  both a
way of retaining viable pollen grains between flights and pin-pointing the
location of the receptive tip of the pistil.  Does the drone "know" when
the anthers are releasing pollen and can it tell when the stigma (pistil
tip) is receptive to pollen?  What the video also shows is the drone
bruising the flower.  If pistils are injured on impact they become infected
with bacteria and fungi dying before they set fruit (try a little
tenderness).

In fact, one of the last robot stories written by Isaac Asimov touched on
this.  He imagined a time in which robot drones replaced dangerous
insecticides. The bird-shaped drones were programmed only to catch specific
insects attacking crops, stock and people.

Peter

On Fri, Feb 10, 2017 at 9:03 AM, David Inouye <inouye at umd.edu> wrote:

> I hadn't considered a letter to the editor, but encourage you to see
> whether they would accept one. Another colleague pointed out that most crop
> and fruit tree flowers are a lot smaller than the lily flower shown in the
> video, and it's unlikely a drone could pollinate them.
>
>
>
> On 2/10/2017 7:38 AM, Barbara Passero wrote:
>
>> Hi David and others,
>>
>> This idea is ridiculous, of course. And dangerous because the average
>> person reading this article would say, "Great. Now I don't have to worry
>> anymore about the fate of bees or eating only corn, wheat, and rice." Do
>> you usually send a stock letter to the editor to correct this misleading
>> information?
>>
>> Thanks, Barbara
>>
>> -----Original Message----- From: David Inouye
>> Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2017 1:06 PM
>> To: pollinator at coevolution.org
>> Subject: [Pollinator] drones as pollinators
>>
>> https://nexusmedianews.com/this-drone-can-do-the-work-of-hon
>> eybees-326f6d1a40c1#.3k4pqg9r1
>>
>>
>>
> --
> Dr. David W. Inouye
> Professor Emeritus
> Department of Biology
> University of Maryland
> College Park, MD 20742-4415
> inouye at umd.edu
>
> Principal Investigator
> Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory
> PO Box 519
> Crested Butte, CO 81224
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
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