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Wood TJ, Müller A, Praz C, Michez D. Elevated rates of dietary generalization in eusocial lineages of the secondarily herbivorous bees. BMC Ecol Evol 2023; 23:67. [PMID: 37986035 PMCID: PMC10662511 DOI: 10.1186/s12862-023-02175-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/23/2023] [Accepted: 11/16/2023] [Indexed: 11/22/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Within the Hymenoptera, bees are notable for their relationship with flowering plants, being almost entirely dependent on plant pollen and nectar. Though functionally herbivorous, as a result of their role as pollinators, bees have received comparatively little attention as models for insect herbivory. Bees often display dietary specialization, but quantitative comparison against other herbivorous insects has not previously been conducted. RESULTS In the most comprehensive analysis to date for 860 bee species, dietary specialization amounted to 50.1% of studied species collecting pollen from between 1 and 2 botanical families with a relatively long tail of dietary generalists, with 11.1% of species collecting from more than 10 botanical families. This distribution deviated from the truncated Pareto distribution of dietary breadth seen in other herbivorous insect lineages. However, this deviation was predominantly due to eusocial bee lineages, which show a range of dietary breadths that conformed to a normal distribution, while solitary bees show a typical truncated distribution not strongly different from other herbivorous insects. We hypothesize that the relatively low level of dietary specialization in bees as a whole reflects the relaxation of the constraints typically observed in herbivorous insects with a comparatively reduced importance of plant chemistry and comparatively increased importance of phenology and foraging efficiency. The long flight periods of eusocial bees that are necessary to allow overlapping generations both allows and necessitates the use of multiple flowering resources, whereas solitary bees with short flight periods have more limited access to varied resources within a constrained activity period. CONCLUSIONS Collectively, solitary bees show slightly lower specialization compared to other herbivorous insects, possibly due to their balanced relationship with plants, rather than direct antagonism such as seen in the direct consumption of plant tissues. An additional factor may be the mediocre diversity of bees at low latitudes combined with low levels of dietary specialization, whereas these areas typically display a high rate of specialization by herbivorous insects in general. Though the most important factors structuring dietary specialization in bees appear to differ from many other herbivorous insects, solitary bees show a surprisingly similar overall pattern of dietary specialization.
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Affiliation(s)
- T J Wood
- University of Mons, Research Institute for Biosciences, Laboratory of Zoology, Place du parc 20, 7000, Mons, Belgium.
| | - A Müller
- ETH Zurich, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Biocommunication and Entomology, Schmelzbergstrasse 9/LFO, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - C Praz
- University of Neuchâtel, Institute of Biology, Rue Emile-Argand 11, 2000, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
- InfoFauna - Swiss Zoological Records Center, Avenue de Bellevaux 51, 2000, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
| | - D Michez
- University of Mons, Research Institute for Biosciences, Laboratory of Zoology, Place du parc 20, 7000, Mons, Belgium
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Streicher MB, Johnson SD, Willows‐Munro S. Effect of fuchsin fixation of pollen on DNA barcode recovery. Ecol Evol 2023; 13:e10475. [PMID: 37664513 PMCID: PMC10468989 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.10475] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2023] [Revised: 07/12/2023] [Accepted: 07/21/2023] [Indexed: 09/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Pollen grains attached to insects are a valuable source of ecological information which can be used to reconstruct visitation networks. Morphological pollen identification relies on light microscopy with pollen usually stained and mounted in fuchsin jelly, which is also used to remove pollen from the bodies of insects. Pollen embedded in fuchsin jelly could potentially be used for DNA barcoding and metabarcoding (large-scale taxonomic identification of complex mixed samples) and thus provide additional information for pollination networks. In this study, we determine whether fuchsin-embedded pollen can be used for downstream molecular applications. We evaluate the quality of plant barcode (ITS) sequences amplified from DNA extracted from both fresh (untreated) pollen, and pollen which had been embedded in fuchsin jelly. We show that the addition of fuchsin to DNA extraction does not impact DNA barcode sequence quality during short-term storage. DNA extractions from both untreated and fuchsin-treated pollen produced reliable barcode sequences of high quality. Our findings suggest that pollen which has been collected, stained, and embedded in fuchsin jelly for preliminary microscopy work can be used within several days for downstream genetic analysis, though the quality of DNA from pollen stored in fuchsin jelly for extended periods is yet to be established.
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Affiliation(s)
- Melanie B. Streicher
- Centre for Functional Biodiversity, School of Life SciencesUniversity of KwaZulu‐NatalScottsvilleSouth Africa
| | - Steven D. Johnson
- Centre for Functional Biodiversity, School of Life SciencesUniversity of KwaZulu‐NatalScottsvilleSouth Africa
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Roch JC, Malfi R, Van Wyk JI, Muñoz Agudelo DC, Milam J, Adler LS. The intersection of bee and flower sexes: pollen presence shapes sex-specific bee foraging associations in sunflower. ENVIRONMENTAL ENTOMOLOGY 2023; 52:480-490. [PMID: 36961107 DOI: 10.1093/ee/nvad021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/29/2022] [Revised: 02/02/2023] [Accepted: 02/27/2023] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
Foraging preferences are known to differ among bee taxa, and can also differ between male and female bees of the same species. Similarly, bees can prefer a specific flower sex, particularly if only one sex provides pollen. Such variation in foraging preferences could lead to divergent bee communities visiting different flower sexes of a plant species. We sampled bees visiting sunflowers to characterize bee species richness, abundance, and sex ratios on pollen-fertile and pollen-sterile cultivars. We asked whether female or male bees were more abundant on sunflowers, whether female bees were more abundant on pollen-fertile or pollen-sterile cultivars, and whether pollen presence predicted the sex of sampled bees. We further asked whether the bee community differed between pollen-fertile and pollen-sterile cultivars. Females of most bee species were more abundant on sunflowers compared to males, and females were usually more abundant on pollen-fertile cultivars. In three bee species, pollen presence was predictive of a bee's sex, with females more abundant on pollen-fertile cultivars than males. Further, the bee community differed significantly between pollen-fertile and pollen-sterile cultivars, with two bee species functioning as indicators for pollen-fertile sunflowers. Our results demonstrate that a bee's sex shapes foraging associations on sunflowers and influences abundance between pollen-fertile and pollen-sterile cultivars, and that pollen-fertile and pollen-sterile cultivars are visited by different bee communities. Bee sexes and flower pollen presence may be under-appreciated factors shaping pollination services in both agricultural and natural ecosystems, and could be important considerations for pollination of crops with pollen-fertile and pollen-sterile flowers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Justin C Roch
- Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA
- Graduate Program in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA
| | - Rosemary Malfi
- Massachusetts Pollinator Network, Northeast Organic Farming Association, Florence, MA 01062, USA
| | - Jennifer I Van Wyk
- Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA
| | - Deicy Carolina Muñoz Agudelo
- Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA
- Graduate Program in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA
| | - Joan Milam
- Department of Environmental Conservation, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA
| | - Lynn S Adler
- Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA
- Graduate Program in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA
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Cryptic Diversity Revealed in A Revision of West Palaearctic Nomiapis and Systropha (Hymenoptera: Halictidae). DIVERSITY 2022. [DOI: 10.3390/d14110920] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/05/2022]
Abstract
Revisionary taxonomic studies of bees from the Old World Mediterranean basin are hindered both by the apparent absence of type material for many taxa and a lack of genetic resources. The discovery of important type materials in combination with the generation of novel DNA barcodes (Cytochrome Oxidase I) has allowed cryptic diversity within the widespread taxa Nomiapis bispinosa (Brullé, 1832) and Systropha planidens Giraud, 1861 to be clarified. Nomiapis bispinosa actually consists of three distinct taxa: Nomiapis bispinosa s. str. from Morocco and Iberia to Central Asia, Nomiapis rufiventris (Spinola, 1838) spec. resurr. from Morocco to Egypt, including Sicily and Nomiapis paulyispec. nov. from Portugal and Spain. A lectotype is designated for Nomia rufiventris Spinola, 1838. Lectotypes are designated for Nomia bispinosa Brullé, 1832 and Nomia albocincta Lucas, 1849, and type material for Nomia perforata Lucas, 1849 is clarified; both Nomiapis albocincta and Nomiapis perforata are synonymised syn. nov. with Nomiapis rufiventris. A lectotype is designated for Nomia ruficornis Spinola, 1838, and this taxon is confirmed as a synonym of Nomiapis bispinosa. Systropha planidens also consists of three distinct taxa: S. planidens from Central Europe to Iran and the European part of Russia, S. grandimargo Pérez, 1905 spec. resurr. from Portugal, Spain, and France, and S. anatolica Warncke, 1977 stat. nov. from Turkey, Syria, and northern Israel. A lectotype is designated for Systropha planidens Giraud, 1861. Systropha chrysura Pérez, 1905 is synonymised syn. nov. with S. grandimargo. These findings illustrate the extent to which our understanding of the taxonomy of Mediterranean bees remains incomplete.
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Dorchin A, Shafir A, Neumann FH, Langgut D, Vereecken NJ, Mayrose I. Bee flowers drive macroevolutionary diversification in long-horned bees. Proc Biol Sci 2021; 288:20210533. [PMID: 34547912 PMCID: PMC8515878 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2021.0533] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The role of plant–pollinator interactions in the rapid radiation of the angiosperms have long fascinated evolutionary biologists. Studies have brought evidence for pollinator-driven diversification of various plant lineages, particularly plants with specialized flowers and concealed rewards. By contrast, little is known about how this crucial interaction has shaped macroevolutionary patterns of floral visitors. In particular, there is currently no empirical evidence that floral host association has increased diversification in bees, the most prominent group of floral visitors that essentially rely on angiosperm pollen. In this study, we examine how floral host preference influenced diversification in eucerine bees (Apidae, Eucerini), which exhibit large variations in their floral associations. We combine quantitative pollen analyses with a recently proposed phylogenetic hypothesis, and use a state speciation and extinction probabilistic approach. Using this framework, we provide the first evidence that multiple evolutionary transitions from host plants with accessible pollen to restricted pollen from ‘bee-flowers’ have significantly increased the diversification of a bee clade. We suggest that exploiting host plants with restricted pollen has allowed the exploitation of a new ecological niche for eucerine bees and contributed both to their colonization of vast regions of the world and their rapid diversification.
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Affiliation(s)
- Achik Dorchin
- The National Natural History Collections, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Edmond J. Safra Campus, Jerusalem 9190401, Israel
| | - Anat Shafir
- School of Plant Sciences and Food Security, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, The Edmond J. Safra Center for Bioinformatics, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
| | - Frank H Neumann
- Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Braamfontein 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - Dafna Langgut
- Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures, and The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, Tel Aviv University, Israel
| | | | - Itay Mayrose
- School of Plant Sciences and Food Security, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, The Edmond J. Safra Center for Bioinformatics, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
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Glaum P, Wood TJ, Morris JR, Valdovinos FS. Phenology and flowering overlap drive specialisation in plant-pollinator networks. Ecol Lett 2021; 24:2648-2659. [PMID: 34532944 DOI: 10.1111/ele.13884] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/25/2021] [Revised: 08/05/2021] [Accepted: 08/21/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Variation in dietary specialisation stems from fundamental interactions between species and their environment. Consequently, understanding the drivers of this variation is key to understanding ecological and evolutionary processes. Dietary specialisation in wild bees has received attention due to their close mutualistic dependence on plants, and because both groups are threatened by biodiversity loss. Many principles governing pollinator specialisation have been identified, but they remain largely unvalidated. Organismal phenology has the potential to structure realised specialisation by determining concurrent resource availability and pollinator foraging activity. We evaluate this principle using mechanistic models of adaptive foraging in pollinators within plant-pollinator networks. While temporal resource overlap has little impact on specialisation in pollinators with extended flight periods, reduced overlap increases specialisation as pollinator flight periods decrease. These results are corroborated empirically using pollen load data taken from bees with shorter and longer flight periods across environments with high and low temporal resource overlap.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul Glaum
- Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of California-Davis, Davis, California, USA.,Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
| | - Thomas J Wood
- Laboratory of Zoology, University of Mons, Mons, Belgium
| | - Jonathan R Morris
- School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
| | - Fernanda S Valdovinos
- Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of California-Davis, Davis, California, USA.,Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
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Wood TJ, Gibbs J, Graham KK, Isaacs R. Narrow pollen diets are associated with declining Midwestern bumble bee species. Ecology 2019; 100:e02697. [DOI: 10.1002/ecy.2697] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/07/2018] [Revised: 02/13/2019] [Accepted: 02/25/2019] [Indexed: 01/22/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- T. J. Wood
- Department of Entomology Michigan State University East Lansing Michigan 48824 USA
| | - J. Gibbs
- Department of Entomology University of Manitoba Winnipeg Manitoba R3T 2N2 Canada
| | - K. K. Graham
- Department of Entomology Michigan State University East Lansing Michigan 48824 USA
| | - R. Isaacs
- Department of Entomology Michigan State University East Lansing Michigan 48824 USA
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LoCascio GM, Aguirre L, Irwin RE, Adler LS. Pollen from multiple sunflower cultivars and species reduces a common bumblebee gut pathogen. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2019; 6:190279. [PMID: 31183152 PMCID: PMC6502360 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.190279] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2019] [Accepted: 03/12/2019] [Indexed: 05/31/2023]
Abstract
Pathogens are one of the factors driving pollinator declines. Diet can play an important role in mediating pollinator health and resistance to pathogens. Sunflower pollen (Helianthus annuus) dramatically reduced a gut pathogen (Crithidia bombi) of Bombus impatiens previously, but the breadth of this effect was unknown. We tested whether pollen from nine H. annuus cultivars, four wild H. annuus populations, H. petiolarus, H. argophyllus and two Solidago spp., reduced Crithidia in B. impatiens compared to mixed wildflower pollen and buckwheat pollen (Fagopyrum esculentum) as controls. We also compared hand- and honeybee-collected pollen (which contains nectar) to assess whether diet effects on pathogens were due to pollen or nectar. All Helianthus and Solidago pollen reduced Crithidia by 20-40-fold compared to buckwheat pollen, and all but three taxa reduced Crithidia compared to wildflower pollen. We found no consistent differences between hand- and bee-collected pollen, suggesting that pollen alone can reduce Crithidia infection. Our results indicate an important role of pollen diet for bee health and potentially broad options within the Asteraceae for pollinator plantings to manage bee disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- George M. LoCascio
- Department of Environmental Conservation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA
| | - Luis Aguirre
- Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA
| | - Rebecca E. Irwin
- Department of Applied Ecology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA
| | - Lynn S. Adler
- Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA
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He B, Su T, Niu Z, Zhou Z, Gu Z, Huang D. Characterization of mitochondrial genomes of three Andrena bees (Apoidea: Andrenidae) and insights into the phylogenetics. Int J Biol Macromol 2019; 127:118-125. [PMID: 30639593 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2019.01.036] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/02/2018] [Revised: 01/08/2019] [Accepted: 01/08/2019] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
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Main AR, Webb EB, Goyne KW, Mengel D. Field-level characteristics influence wild bee functional guilds on public lands managed for conservation. Glob Ecol Conserv 2019. [DOI: 10.1016/j.gecco.2019.e00598] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022] Open
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Wood TJ, Kaplan I, Szendrei Z. Wild Bee Pollen Diets Reveal Patterns of Seasonal Foraging Resources for Honey Bees. Front Ecol Evol 2018. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2018.00210] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
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