Pollen Foraging in a Community of Osmia Bees (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae)

Cripps, Colleen; Rust, Richard W.

doi:10.1093/ee/18.4.582

Cited by 17 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…The other 14 species visit an array of host plants, but their pollen preferences are unknown (Hurd 1979). However, there is a trend for some of them (including O. brevis, O. bruneri, O. ednae, O. proxima, and O. albolateralis) to be closely associated with Penstemon, and for at least some local populations to act as Penstemon specialists (Crosswhite and Crosswhite 1966, Moldenke and Neff 1974, Cripps and Rust 1989, Lawson et al 1989. Our results support this trend: 95% of Osmia scopal loads were composed of Penstemon pollen, indicating that these bees were foraging almost exclusively on Penstemon.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The reproductive biology and effective pollinators of the endangered beardtonguePenstemon penlandii (Scrophulariaceae)

1999

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The reproductive biology and effective pollinators of the endangered beardtonguePenstemon penlandii (Scrophulariaceae)

1999

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“…Finally, various mentions in the literature suggest that rubbing behavior has been observed in additional species but precise enough descriptions for confirmation are lacking, and many of these could refer to tapping (see next section). This includes suggestions of rubbing by Osmia lignaria, O. indeprensa Sandhouse, and O. kincaidii Cockerell ("the anthers are drawn to the scopal hairs by the hind legs," Cripps and Rust 1989), Megachile willughbiella (Kirby) ("the scopa is brushed over the pollen presenting structures, " Teppner 2005), as well as O. bicornis (L.) [as O. rufa (L.)] on Ranunculus, and O. leaiana (Kirby) and O. caerulescens on Asteraceae, which were observed "walking over the anthers so that the ventral scopa touched them while they probed the nectaries" (Raw 1974). In addition, various Megachilidae have been reported to gather pollen by "seesawing" the scopa directly against anthers: Hoplitis robusta (Nylander) on Potentilla (Rosaceae), H. zandeni (Teunissen and van Achterberg 1992), Osmia spp.…”

Section: Solanummentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous researchers have broken down active pollen gathering into numerous variants, but these attempts typically lack a broader framework and conflate, or overlap with, existing definitions. For example, a single species -Osmia montana Cresson (Megachilidae) -has had its pollen gathering behavior variously coined as "thumping," "tapping," "patting," and "drumming" (Rust 1974;Cripps and Rust 1989;Cane 2011;Cane 2017). Conversely, the same term can have multiple meanings, such as "scrabbling," which has been variously used to describe bees that scrape with the forelegs or run over a plane of flowers (Percival 1955;Thorp 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A review and updated classification of pollen gathering behavior in bees (Hymenoptera, Apoidea)

Portman¹,

Orr²,

Griswold³

2019

JHR

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Pollen is the primary protein and nutrient source for bees and they employ many different behaviors to gather it. Numerous terms have been coined to describe pollen gathering behaviors, creating confusion as many are not clearly-defined or overlap with existing terms. There is a need for a clear yet flexible classification that enables accurate, succinct descriptions of pollen gathering behaviors to enable meaningful discussion and comparison. Here, we classify the different pollen gathering behaviors into two main classes: active and incidental pollen collection. Active pollen collection is subdivided into six behaviors: scraping with the extremities, buzzing, rubbing with the body and/or scopae, rubbing with the face, tapping, and rasping. In addition to the active and incidental pollen gathering behaviors, many bees have an intermediate step in which they temporarily accumulate pollen on a discrete patch of specialized hairs. Each behavior is described and illustrated with video examples. Many of these behaviors can be further broken down based on the variations found in different bee species. Different species or individual bees mix and match these pollen collecting behaviors depending on their behavioral plasticity and host plant morphology. Taken together, the different behaviors are combined to create complex behavioral repertoires built on a foundation of simple and basic steps. This classification sets the groundwork for further research on various topics, including behavioral plasticity in different species, comparisons between generalists and specialists, and the relative effectiveness of different pollen gathering behaviors.

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“…Second, individuals of generalist bee species (hereafter “polylectic” bees) are able to use pollen from more plant species than individuals of specialist bee species (hereafter “oligolectic” bees), which are physiologically and behaviourally limited to only a few plant taxa for pollen (Praz, Müller, & Dorn, ; Williams, ). Thus, we expect individuals of polylectic species to carry more diverse pollen loads than individuals of oligolectic species (Cripps & Rust, ; Müller, ). Finally, we expect bees that visit herbs to carry more diverse pollen loads than bees that visit trees or shrubs, because the large floral displays produced by trees and shrubs could induce a foraging bee to stay on one plant longer and save the search costs of foraging elsewhere.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Specialist foragers in forest bee communities are small, social or emerge early

Smith

Weinman

Gibbs

et al. 2019

Journal of Animal Ecology

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Individual pollinators that specialize on one plant species within a foraging bout transfer more conspecific and less heterospecific pollen, positively affecting plant reproduction. However, we know much less about pollinator specialization at the scale of a foraging bout compared to specialization by pollinator species. In this study, we measured the diversity of pollen carried by individual bees foraging in forest plant communities in the mid‐Atlantic United States. We found that individuals frequently carried low‐diversity pollen loads, suggesting that specialization at the scale of the foraging bout is common. Individuals of solitary bee species carried higher diversity pollen loads than did individuals of social bee species; the latter have been better studied with respect to foraging bout specialization, but account for a small minority of the world’s bee species. Bee body size was positively correlated with pollen load diversity, and individuals of polylectic (but not oligolectic) species carried increasingly diverse pollen loads as the season progressed, likely reflecting an increase in the diversity of flowers in bloom. Furthermore, the seasonal increase in pollen load diversity was stronger for bees visiting trees and shrubs than for bees visiting herbaceous plants. Overall, our results showed that both plant and pollinator species’ traits as well as community‐level patterns of flowering phenology are likely to be important determinants of individual‐level interactions in plant–pollinator communities.

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Pollen Foraging in a Community of Osmia Bees (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae)

Cited by 17 publications

References 0 publications

The reproductive biology and effective pollinators of the endangered beardtonguePenstemon penlandii (Scrophulariaceae)

The reproductive biology and effective pollinators of the endangered beardtonguePenstemon penlandii (Scrophulariaceae)

A review and updated classification of pollen gathering behavior in bees (Hymenoptera, Apoidea)

Specialist foragers in forest bee communities are small, social or emerge early

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