Animal-mediated pollination and the subsequent fertilization of plants is the most important eco-physiological process that occurs during the production of many fruit, vegetable, and nut crops. It has been estimated that the economic global value of animalmediated pollination is 9.5% of the value of the world agricultural production [1]. This is sobering in light of the documented global decline of pollinators [2–4]. Of  the animalsperforming pollination services, bees are considered the most significant [5,6]. Pollination  by bees is one of the more complex insect–plant interactions in agriculture. This is because of the behavioral, ecological, and physiological dynamics of pollinating bees (involving thousands of species worldwide), the ecological and physiological dynamics of crop plants,and the complex dynamics  between the interacting bees and plants involving both of their behaviors, ecologies, and physiologies. While there have been recent advances in the pollinator diversity and community ecology associated with crop plants, much remains to be learned about crop plant pollination, the specific roles of crop plant reproductive syndromes, and the temporal and spatial dynamics of pollinator diversity and abundance. In addition, the effectiveness and economics of relying upon native pollinators and/or commercially managed pollinators such as the honey bee need to be better resolved. In most crop production systems dependent upon animal pollination, other areas that have not been well researched are the effectiveness of pollinator reservoirs; the competition of the pollen from neighboring flowering plants with crop bloom; the longevity of stigma receptivity; within-crop-species pollen compatibility; planting designs to maximize fruit sets; the insect efficacy of pollen vectoring; the effects of agricultural chemicals on insect visitation, fruit sets, and yields; and the effect of plant resource constraints on flower development, all of which are compensatory mechanisms that reduce fruit size