Leafcutter bees collect leaf discs to encase brood cells. However, our understanding of their use of plants as nesting resources, which is critical for their conservation, is poor. We followed plants and observed bees cutting leaves to understand the leaf and plant traits of the leaf forage plants of Megachile spp. We studied whether the leaf size explains the cut size and the number of cuts in the leaves. The bees collected leaves from 59 species, 49 genera and 25 families of plants of various habits. Plant habit, leaf morphotype and leaf size did not influence leaf choice by the bees. Of the plants surveyed, 45.22% had the distinguishable cutting marks. About 63% and 98% of the plants the bees used are native to the region and to the tropical southern hemisphere, respectively. Bees selected leaves over an extreme size range, and the leaf size predicted the number of cuts on a leaf. Comparing our results with other studies, we conclude that the leafcutter bees' selection of plants is adapted to the local environment.
Nectar robbing – harvesting nectar illegitimately – can have a variety of outcomes for plant sexual reproduction and for the pollinator community. Nectar robbers can damage flowers while robbing nectar, which could affect the behavior of subsequent flower visitors and, consequently, plant reproduction. However, only nectar manipulation by nectar robbers has so far received attention. We found a short‐tongued bee, Hoplonomia sp. (Halictidae), mutilating the conspicuous lower petal of the zygomorphic flowers of Leucas aspera (Lamiaceae) while robbing nectar. We hypothesized that the mutilation of the conspicuous lower petal deters legitimate pollinators on L. aspera flowers, which, in turn, might affect plant reproduction. We first assessed the proportion of naturally‐robbed flowers in plant populations for three years to confirm that it was not a purely local phenomenon due to a few individual bees. We then studied diversity, community and visitation characteristics of pollinators, nectar dynamics and fruit set in unrobbed and robbed open flowers in naturally‐robbed populations. The proportion of robbed flowers varied significantly across sites and years. Robbing did not affect nectar dynamics in flowers, but it did alter flower morphology, so much so that it reduced pollinator visitation and altered the pollinator community on robbed flowers. However, the maternal function of plant reproduction was not affected by nectar robbing. This study for the first time shows that a nectar robber can have an ecologically significant impact on floral morphology.
Platygastridae is the third largest family of parasitic Hymenoptera in the world. It includes important egg and larval parasitoids of insects and spiders. Therefore, Platygastridae is functionally important in maintaining the stability of tropical rainforests and agroecosystems. Although the diversity of Platygastridae is relatively well-known in agroecosystems, we know little about their diversity in tropical rainforests, and particularly about that of the leaf litter layer. Here, we address the importance of monitoring Platygastridae in tropical rainforests, using data from the relic primary forests of the sacred groves of the Western Ghats. First, we demonstrate that pitfall traps allow us to catch a wide array of representative diversity of Platygastridae of the tropical rainforests, and we establish an efficient collection method to study Platygastridae of leaf litter layer. Second, we demonstrate that the community structure and composition of Platygastridae of the leaf litter layer is different from that seen in the understory of the forests. This indirectly informs us that the Malaise traps capture only a minor subset of the species active in the rainforests. Third, we find that the dry and wet seasons captured dissimilar community of Platygastridae, suggesting that the season might alter the potential host species or host stages. We conclude that monitoring parasitic Hymenoptera in the leaf litter layer of tropical rainforests can provide fresh insights on the species distribution of both the parasitoids and their hosts, and allows us to examine the current state of the tropical rainforests from a functional point of view.
Sacred groves (SGs) of India are islets of forests providing ecosystem and spiritual services to man. Studies suggest that SGs are deteriorating on their quality due to urbanization, invasive species, land-use change, and religious modernization. We explored diversity, community, and abundance of overall and different functional groups of litter ants, including Anoplolepis gracilipes – an invasive ant – on paired SG-neighbouring home garden (HG) sites in rural and urban landscape to (a) assess the quality of SGs and (b) examine whether the variation in ant community of the two habitats was predicted by urbanization and abundance of A. gracilipes. We considered species and local contribution to β-diversity to identify species and sites crucial for conservation of sites. Abundance and richness of overall ants, proportional trap incidence of species, and abundance of A. gracilipes were similar on SG and HG, but species diversity and abundance of certain ant functional groups were higher on SG. Ant community of SG was different from HG, but was not affected by urbanization. A. gracilipes and rural SGs contributed the most to β diversity. A. gracilipes gave little pressure on native ant community. The study concludes that SGs, despite invaded by A. gracilipes, have potential for conserving biodiversity.
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