Pollinator specialization increases with a decrease in a mass‐flowering plant in networks inferred from DNA metabarcoding

1. How native mass‐flowering plants affect the specialization of insects at individual and species levels and the consequences for pollination networks have received much less attention than for mass‐flowering crops or alien species and basically remain unexplored. 2. Using existing DNA metabarcoding data on the pollen loads of 402 flower‐visiting insects, we assessed the effects of a native mass‐flowering plant of high reward quality, the shrub Rhododendron ferrugineum, on pollination networks by investigating: (a) the food niches of individual pollinators and pollinator species and (b) the structure of individual and species networks in subalpine heathland patches with extremely contrasted densities of R. ferrugineum. 3. Relative to its high abundance in high‐density patches, the shrub was greatly underrepresented and did not dominate individual's or species' generalized networks, rather individual and species specialization increased with a decrease in R. ferrugineum density. Furthermore, individuals of the more generalist dipteran Empididae species tended to extend exclusive interactions with rare plant species in low‐density networks. The same trend was observed in the more specialist Apidea but toward rare species in high‐density networks. Our results reveal a quite paradoxical view of pollination and a functional complementarity within networks. Niche and network indices mostly based on the occurrence of links showed that individual pollinators and pollinator species and networks were highly generalized, whereas indices of link strength revealed that species and above all individuals behave as quite strict specialists. 4. Synthesis. Our study provides insights into the status of a native mass‐flowering plant in individual's and insect species' food niches and pollination networks. It revealed that a generalist pollinator species can be highly specialized at the individual level and how rare plant species coexisting with mass‐flowering plants may nevertheless be visited.