The Effects of Pollen Protein Content on Colony Development of the Bumblebee, Bombus Terrestris L.

Abstract

A b s t r a c t The effects of pollen protein content on the colony development of Bombus terrestris were investigated by feeding queens and queenright colonies with four different pollen diets. We used three kinds of commercially available pure pollen (Cistus spp. 11.9%, Papaver somniferum 21.4%, and Sinapis arvensis 21.8% crude protein). We also used a mixture which was made up of equal weights of these pure pollens (18.4 % crude protein). All queens and colonies were fed with sugar syrup and pollen diets ad libitum (28 ± 1 o C, 65 ± 5% RH). Until there were 50 workers reached, colonies fed with the Cistus pollen diet (167.4 ± 28.9 g) consumed signifi cantly more pollen than colonies fed with the Papaver pollen diet (140.7 ± 15.7 g), the mixed pollen diet (136.2 ± 20.1 g) or colonies fed with the Sinapis pollen diet (132.4 ± 22.6 g). The date when there were 50 workers reached was approximately one week later in the colonies fed with the Cistus, and colonies fed with the Papaver diet than in the colonies fed with the Sinapis diet, and for colonies fed with the mixed pollen diets. Considering 8 tested criteria, the best performances were observed using the Sinapis, and using the mixed pollen diets. The lowest performances were observed using the Cistus pollen diet. Results showed that pollen sources play an important role in commercial bumblebee rearing. Results also showed that the polyfl oral pollen diets are more suitable for mass rearing of bumblebees than the unifl oral pollen diets.

Interspecific Variation in Bumblebee Performance on Pollen Diet: New Insights for Mitigation Strategies

“…As previously underscored [33, 44, 54], bumblebee colony growth was significantly affected by pollen sources. As a matter of fact, the development of B .…”

Floral Diversity of Pollen Collected by Honey Bees (Apis mellifera L.) – Validation of the Chromatic Assessment Method

“…So, the former statement is also valid for the conservation of wild pollinators. The negative influence of low pollen quality in other bee species, like Bombus terrestris L., was also confirmed directly (Baloglu & Gurel, 2015). The alteration of natural and semi-natural habitats, due to the development of intensive agriculture, produces two serious risks to bee nutrition: limited availability and low quality of pollen.…”

Is non‐host pollen suitable for generalist bumblebees?

“…To collect enough pollen (i.e., around 250 g) for the bioassays, bumblebee rearing experiments are performed using honeybee pollen loads following previous studies in nutritive ecology (e.g., Génissel et al, 2002;Tasei & Aupinel, 2008a;Baloglu & Gurel, 2015;Ruedenauer et al, 2015;Ruedenauer et al, 2016). Although honeybee pollen loads and floral pollen may differ in their chemical compositions for a same plant species, our experimental design remains consistent as all analyses were conducted on pollen candies to avoid misinterpretation of bioassays.…”

“…While the development failure of honey bees fed exclusively on Taraxacum pollen (Herbert et al, 1970) has been attributed to its lack in tryptophane and phenylalanine (Auclair & Jamieson, 1948) and its deficience in arginine (Herbert, 1992) (i.e., essential amino acids), the composition and concentration of essential amino acids in the pollen of Cirsium appears to be sufficient for a successful development. Recent studies have already showed that proteins and amino acids were not the only nutrients impacting pollen suitability but presence of other components may provide additional properties (Vanderplanck et al, 2014a,b;Baloglu & Gurel, 2015). Actually, Cirsium pollen displays abundance of quite rare phytosterols (i.e., δ7-sterols).…”