ALT A honeybee (Apis mellifera), sunflower bee (Svastra obliqua), & two sweat bees (Halictus tripartitus & Halictus ligatus) visit a sunflower (Helianthus sp.). Among the diversity of bees that visit sunflowers & other flowering plants, honeybees are often the most frequent floral visitors, but are they effective pollinators of the plants they visit? Using an extensive meta-analysis of 168 pollinator effectiveness studies, the authors found that honeybees are as effective as the average pollinator, but are rarely the most effective. Surprisingly, honeybees are less effective than other bees as pollinators of cultivated plants, suggesting the importance of honeybees as agricultural pollinators is largely based on their abundance. The study confirms the widely held belief that honeybees are not the best pollinators of plants globally & substantiates the growing concern that honeybees may be imperfect substitutes for the loss of wild pollinators. Image credit: Kathy Keatley Garvey