Temporal Occurrence, Abundance, and Biodiversity of Bees on Weed-Infested Turfgrass

Abstract

A decline in pollinators is a real concern for the biodiversity and pollination of insect-dependent plants in landscapes and agriculture. Turfgrass is often presumed to be an ecological desert, as it is maintained at a low height with no floral resources for pollinators. Weeds are common on low-maintenance lawns in the southeastern USA and have rarely been studied as resources for pollinators. Thus, this study aimed to determine the abundance and diversity of bees on weed-infested lawns. Bees were sampled using yellow, white, and blue bowls and by bagging bees foraging on flowering weeds during the growing season from 2021 to 2023. Over three years, 539 bees from 16 genera were collected from weed-infested turfgrass lawns. Weeds were present throughout the growing seasons, and bees were also collected from them. Bombus, Apis, and Lasioglossum bees were the dominant genera collected. Large-sized bees, such as Bombus, were mostly collected from white clover (Trifolium repens L.), whereas small-sized bees, such as Lasioglossum, were mostly collected from common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale Weber). Other bee genera collected were Agapostemon, Augochlora, Augochlorella, Calliopsis, Ceratina, Epeolus, Halictus, Melissodes, Osmia, Panurginus, Ptilothrix, Svastra, and Xylocopa. This showed that a diverse group of bees utilized lawns infested with weeds.