oligolecty
/ˌɑləɡoʊˈlɛkti/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
16
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The preference of an insect pollinator (chiefly a bee) for pollinating only a few plant species.
Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "We have, thus, a case where different types of bees are similarly adapted to oligolecty on a certain group of plants."
- "The most likely explanation for oligolecty in bees is not different from the explanation of specificity of any organism to its habitat; in fact, oligolecty is a form of host specificity."
- "In so far as now known, all of the species exhibit a high degree of oligolecty (or monolecty) being restricted in pollen collecting to a single genus of plants."
- "An individual of a polylectic species that takes pollen from only a few kinds of plants is showing flower constancy rather than oligolecty."
- "Once oligolecty was documented, the following two summers were used for field study of widely separated populations of I. pandurata."
- "That oligolecty exists is indisputable, but its application to particular bee species engenders confusion and debate. […] We propose a definition of oligolecty that is sufficiently inclusive without diluting the intended meaning for undisputed cases: we define oligolecty as consistent and predictable reliance of a species on a few plant genera for their pollen needs."
Etymology
Probably from oligolectic + -y (suffix forming abstract nouns denoting conditions, qualities, or states). Oligolectic is derived from English oligo- (prefix meaning ‘few’) (from Ancient Greek ὀλῐ́γος (olĭ́gos, “few, little”), from Proto-Indo-European *(o)leyg- (“indigent, poor; miserable”)) + Ancient Greek λεκτός (lektós, “chosen”) (from λέγω (légō, “to choose; to arrange; to gather”), from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to collect, gather”)) + English -ic (suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ from nouns), possibly modelled after eclectic.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *leyg-, ὀλῐ́γος, *(o)leyg-, λεκτός, *leǵ-
- Suffix: oligolectic
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˌɑləɡoʊˈlɛkti/
- British English: /ˌɒlɪɡə(ʊ)ˈlɛkti/