Invasive bees promote high reproductive success in Andean orchids

Massively Introduced Managed Species and Their Consequences for Plant–Pollinator Interactions

“…B. terrestris can also have collateral effects on the local floral communities and, in turn, on the wild bee species visiting with them. For example, Sanguinetti and Singer (2014) evidenced better reproductive success of a native orchid from Argentina due to more frequent visits by B. terrestris than by the native B. dahlbomii. However, deleterious effects for the local fauna following invasions of B. terrestris are frequently reported.…”

“…In Boxes 1-3, we developed the potential consequences of pollinating MIMS introductions in vulnerable ecosystems as well as in agrosystems. Traveset and Richardson (2006, 2014 and Dohzono and Yokoyama (2010) reviewed the consequences of the introduction of pollinating MIMS on plant communities and highlighted three main mechanisms which may disrupt mutualistic interactions: (i) a decrease in the quantity or quality of conspecific pollen received by wild plants due to insect diet preferences or cheating behaviour (nectar robbing), (ii) a reinforcement of invasive plant pollination through invasion meltdown c and (iii) a lower reproductive success for plant species suffering of pollination deficit, especially in areas with scarce pollinators (Sanguinetti and Singer, 2014). Taken together, these mechanisms could have major collateral effects on native pollinators through modifications of plant resource availability.…”

Weak trophic links between a crab-spider and the effective pollinators of a rewardless orchid

“…Orchids are a good model on which to explore these assumptions given that pollen is packed inside pollinia (Johnson and Edwards, 2000), making it easy to detect effective pollinators from floral visitors and track pollen movements within and between individual flowers and plants. The pollination biology of only a handful of Patagonian Chloraea species had been well studied (Clayton and Aizen, 1996;Lehnebach and Riveros, 2003;Humaña et al, 2008;Sanguinetti et al, 2012;Sanguinetti and Singer, 2014), but most work has focused on their breeding systems and fruiting success, with little emphasis on pollinator diversity and behavior. Given that C. alpina, as all Chloraea spp.…”

New records reveal rapid geographic expansion of Bombus terrestris Linnaeus, 1758 (Hymenoptera: Apidae), an invasive species in Argentina

“…Plants species relying on few pollinator species are expected to be more vulnerable to pollinator species extinctions (Memmott et al 2004). Although B. terrestris has been shown to successfully pollinate endemic specialist orchids, which previously relied exclusively on B. dahlbomii (Sanguinetti and Singer 2014), the replacement of a native long-tongued by an invasive short-tongued bumblebee may have demographic or evolutionary consequences for many native species with deep corollas like Alstroemeria aurea (Alstroemeriaceae) and Vicia nigricans (Fabaceae) (Morales and Aizen 2002;Dohzono and Yokohama 2010). In fact, populations of this latter species suffer with high levels of nectar robbing by B. terrestris (L. Graham, pers.…”