Pollinators: bee

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Sunday, September 3, 2017

Imitation is the Best Form of Protection in Some Cases

Not a bee, but a mimic, the fly Eristalis. © Beatriz Moisset

A stroll among the flowers allows me to see numerous bees of different sorts, zipping along from blossom to blossom. Just as numerous are other winged insects that look very much like bees. The experienced eye recognizes them for what they are, flower flies impersonating the stinging insects. But those unfamiliar with bees or with insects, in general, may assume that these flower flies are bees. They may even recoil in fear of a sting although the flies are innocuous, lacking such powerful weapon.

A wasp mimic, Spilomyia sayi © Beatriz Moisset

Those flies who imitate bees or wasps have a reason for playing this masquerade. They are not interested in fooling us, humans. Their deception is aimed at their predators, mostly birds. However, the ruse is so effective that it even we fall for it.

Syrphid flies, also known as flower flies or hover flies, are almost as assiduous in visiting flowers as bees are. They drink nectar and sometimes also feed on pollen. Although not as efficient as bees as pollinators, they deserve some credit and occasionally their contribution to pollination is significant. Another group of flies that visit flowers with great frequency includes the so called bee flies.

Both, flower flies and bee flies mimic bees or, in some instances, wasps. The imitation is very specific in some cases. The so called drone fly, Eristalis tenax, looks like a honey bee. The name is appropriate, considering that male honey bees, drones, have large eyes, and these flies have even bigger eyes. Both, the fly and the honey bee are European. The imitator evolved along with its model in that continent. Another European flower fly that mimics honey bees effectively is the narcissus fly, Merodon equestris.

Other flower flies and also a robber fly imitate bumble bees. They have a furry coat and even buzz like bumble bees.

Bumble bee mimic, Mallota bautias © Beatriz Moisset

The smaller flies, members of the Syrphinae subfamily apparently are mimics of some or another of the many solitary bees. In most cases one cannot be sure of the model chosen for this mimicry.

A honey bee, the model for many mimics © Beatriz Moisset

It is a peculiar thing that some imitations are extremely good, while others are rather general in character. Biologists speculate that even a not-so-good imitation may serve the purpose of deceiving the enemies and this is why such types of mimicry persist in nature. It is also possible that the predators don’t see exactly what we see and the mimicry is convincing enough for them.

This is just one type of mimicry. Other insects take the appearance of their surroundings, which makes them nearly invisible. Still others look like bird poop, not an appetizing sight for a snack seeker. Stay tuned for descriptions and illustrations of more of these ingenious survival mechanisms.

References

http://pollinators.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-great-impersonators-flower-flies.html

https://polinizador.wordpress.com/2011/07/11/mimics-of-bumble-bees/

List of articles
Beginners Guide to Pollinators and Other Flower Visitors

© Beatriz Moisset. 2015

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Unexpected Liaisons, Mites and Bees

Mason bee with phoretic mites

Wikicommons © Orangeaurochs

We think of mites as annoying tiny parasites that cling to us and make us itch. If we see an insect covered with mites we feel sorry for it, assuming that the poor thing must be itching terribly and being weakened by the blood sucking pest. This is true in most cases, but curiously there are some exceptions. Believe it or not, some bees, wasps and beetles are perfectly happy with such companions. They bus around the little fellows from plants to nests. This earn the passengers the name of phoretic mites.

Carpenter bee (Xylocopa) with phoretic mites

Wikicommons © Gideon Pisanty

Mites and ticks are not insects. They are related to spiders, and most of them have eight legs, just like spiders. Mites are tiny; most of them are smaller than the tip of your ball point pen, so it is not surprising that we know very little about them. We would be quite surprised at the immense variety of mites and the large number of species. Many feed at the expense of animals, like the ones mentioned at the start of this piece, but many more feed on plants, fungi or bacteria.

Acarinarium of carpenter bee (Xylocopa)

Wikicommons © T. B. Fletcher (1914)

Getting back to the mites covering a bee. Little do you know that these particular kind of mites are the bee's friends to the point that the bee provides transport for them. Some bees have a small compartment or pouch on their bodies where mites can ride comfortably to the bee's nest. This organ is called an acarinarium, from the Greek word acarus (plural acari), which means mite.

It turns out that the mites feed on parasites that are prone to invade the bee's nest where she is raising a family. Thus the mite provides a valuable service to the bee which is greatly appreciated and compensated.

Some wasps have a similar mutualistic arrangement with mites and carry them to their nests. Carrion beetles transport mites to fresh carcasses. The mites feed on fly maggots, the beetle's competitors.

Potter wasp with acarinarium

Carrion beetle with phoretic mites

Flickr, Wikimedia. © Bohne, G

List of articles

Beginners Guide to Pollinators and Other Flower Visitors

Monday, May 16, 2016

Early Spring Pollinators and their Flowers

Bluebells and carpenter bee

Many gardeners are developing a new concern for pollinators. They look for ways to help them. Aware that a perfectly manicured, pesticide-laden lawn is not good for pollinators they enthusiastically adopt a scattering of dandelions in the early spring.

This is certainly beneficial to pollinators. However some of the passionate claims that accompany this activity are somewhat exaggerated. It is not true that pollinators “need” dandelions. They would prefer other flowers if they had a chance.

Spicebush in bloom

Spicebush and pollinator

Before dandelions were introduced from Europe and before lawns became so rampant in our suburbs, early spring pollinators were faced with a smorgasbord of early spring flowers. Here is an incomplete list of the so-called spring ephemerals prevalent where I live, in the Mid-Atlantic region: spring beauty, trout lily, trillium, columbines, rue anemones, Dutchman's britches, bloodroot and bluebells. These and others can still be found in nature areas, although they have become extremely rare in gardens and parks. Perhaps even more important to early spring pollinators are a number of trees and shrubs, such as willows, maples (some, not all of them), serviceberry, sassafras, spicebush, redbud, and a little later, azaleas and dogwoods, just to name a few.

Spring beauty and spring beauty Andrena

This assortment of flowering plants offers a rich and diverse diet to newly awakened queen bumble bees, early Andrena bees, and other bees and flies seeking pollen and nectar. Some pollinators are specialists on just one or a limited variety of flowers. The spring beauty Andrena, trout lily Andrena and several willow blossom devotees would look at dandelions in despair, not being able to make any use of them.

Trout lily, frequently visited

by the trout lily Andrena

The biotic community described above not only nourishes early-riser pollinators but also provides food and habitat for local wildlife. For instance, the red maple serves as a host plant for more than 100 moth species, willows provide food for several hundred species of moths. In turn, these caterpillars nourish birds and other wildlife. By contrast a lawn with dandelions is an impoverished ecosystem with very limited ecological value, more similar to a refugee camp than to a healthy, lively community.

Azalea and its specialist

the azalea Andrena

If the goal is to help pollinators we would reduce the size of the lawn and grow some of the plants mentioned above rather than simply allowing dandelions among the blades of grass.

Bloodroot and Red-necked False Blister Beetle

Such a goal is hard to achieve for most gardeners and probably impossible or nearly impossible for many of them. So, reducing the use of pesticides and allowing dandelions, as well as a few other small lawn “weeds,” is a good decision. But anybody seriously committed to protecting, not just pollinators, but entire ecosystems would do well to take a look at other alternatives.

Dandelion visited by a cuckoo bee

Dandelion and ants

List of articles
Beginners Guide to Pollinators and Other Flower Visitors

© Beatriz Moisset. 2016

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Mass Appeal and Pollination

Some of the many visitors to goldenrod. © Beatriz Moisset

Many flowers are not particularly selective; they welcome all kinds of visitors. They are wide open, easily accessible, thus many insects can reach the nectar and/or pollen regardless of whether their tongues are long or short. Such flowers provide a convenient standing platform to save their visitors the inconvenience of hovering over them. Their structure is simple so the pollinators don’t need to figure out how to open them in order to reach their rewards. Goldenrod is a fine example.

Monarch butterfly on goldenrod. © Beatriz Moisset

I have spent countless happy hours observing goldenrods and photographing their numerous visitors. The one most common in my area is the Canada goldenrod. Several hundreds of species visit their flowers. Bear in mind that not all flower visitors qualify as pollinators. Some are not efficient at carrying pollen, or sit in one place for a long time and never make it to another plant. Such is the case of ambush bugs, whose only concern is to snare hapless pollinators to make a meal out of them. If you are interested on photographing and identifying pollinators this is a good place to start.

Metallic green bee. © Beatriz Moisset

This plant blooms in the fall. It often gets blamed for allergies, but the real culprit is another plant that grows close by, sometimes intermingled with goldenrods, ragweed. Its flowers are inconspicuous because its pollen gets carried by the wind, not by officious pollinators. This is how it gets into our nostrils and causes our suffering. The much maligned goldenrods have larger, heavier and stickier grains of pollen that cannot get airborne and that require help from visitors.

Two states, Kentucky and Nebraska, have the goldenrod as their state flower. It is not clear which species of goldenrod Kentucky picked, but it is likely the Canada goldenrod (Solidago altissima). Nebraska’s choice is clearer, the giant goldenrod (Solidago gigantea). South Carolina, not satisfied with a state flower, also has a state wildflower. It is the Canada goldenrod. It is worth mentioning that Delaware has a state herb, the anise-scented or sweet goldenrod (Solidago odora).

Bumble bee on sunflower. © Beatriz Moisset

Coreopsis. © Beatriz Moisset

Two other state flowers also have mass appeal. Like goldenrod, they are members of the daisy or aster family, easy to access by different kinds of visitors. They are Kansas’ sunflower (Helianthus annuus) and Maryland’s Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta). It is worth mentioning here that two states, Florida and Mississippi, chose the tickseed (Coreopsis spp.) as a state wildflower in addition to their official state flowers, the orange blossom and the magnolia, respectively.

Kentucky: Goldenrod

Nebraska: Goldenrod

South Carolina (wildflower): Goldenrod

Delaware (herb): Goldenrod

Kansas: Sunflower

Maryland: Black-eyed Susan

Florida (wildflower): Coreopsis

Mississippi (wildflower): Coreopsis

The indiscriminate pollination strategy represented by all these flowers has advantages and also disadvantages. They suffer no shortage of pollinators. If one species is doing poorly one year, as it often happens in the insect world, there are plenty more to fill in the deficiency. However, sometimes too much of a good thing can be bad. Some of these non-specialized pollinators may be visiting a variety of flowers instead of being faithful to just one species so they end up carrying the wrong kind of pollen in such cases.

Blossoms with such mass appeal give me the opportunity to introduce the reader to the main groups of pollinators. They are all well represented on these mass appeal flowers.

Andrenidae bee © Beatriz Moisset

Bumble bee. © Beatriz Moisset

Let us start by getting acquainted with bees. More than 80 species have been seen on goldenrods. Some of them deserve mention. Bumble bees are larger than other bees, plump, dark with yellow or white stripes, and hairy. Metallic green bees are small and gorgeously colored. They may escape notice if one isn’t very observant; but it is easy to become captivated by their shiny aspect. Mason bees and leaf-cutting bees carry pollen on their underbelly, unlike most other bees that carry it on their hind legs. Most of them are dark, nearly black and about the size of honey bees or slightly smaller.

Wasp. © Beatriz Moisset

Wasps are related to bees and sometimes people confuse them. Most wasps are less hairy than bees and have narrow waists. They raise their young on a diet of insects or spiders, instead of pollen and nectar as bees do. Adult wasps need nectar to fuel their flight. Thus, they are frequent flower visitors and accomplish some pollination.

Syrphid fly. © Beatriz Moisset

Many types of flies, including mosquitoes and gnats visit flowers to feed on their nectar. Some are good pollinators. The Syrphid flies, also called flower flies, are among the most assiduous flower visitors. Most of them mimic bees or wasps and are frequently mistaken for them. However, they don’t sting and there is no reason to fear them.

Buckeye butterfly on goldenrod. © Beatriz Moisset

Pyrausta moth on sunflower. © Beatriz Moisset

Yellow collared scape moth on goldenrod. © Beatriz Moisset

Butterflies, skippers and moths have extremely long tongues that they can use like drinking straws when sipping nectar. They favor long necked flowers and carry pollen from one to another.

Polished lady beetle on sunflower. © Beatriz Moisset

Soldier beetle on goldenrod. © Beatriz Moisset

Finally, beetles, although not well specialized for pollination, are also capable of doing so in special circumstances. We already mentioned magnolia pollination by beetles. They also visit other flowers and can do a reasonably good job in some cases.

In the following chapters we’ll see flowers that have chosen a different strategy. They are pickier or more selective. Some attract a handful of visitors; a few go to the extreme of having relationships with only one species of pollinators.

Pollinators of Official State Flowers

References

Goldenrods and Asters: Great PollinatorPlants for the Fall. Penn State Extension

List of articles
Beginners Guide to Pollinators and Other Flower Visitors

© Beatriz Moisset. 2015

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Sneezeweed or Helenium

Halictid male bee on Helenium. © Beatriz Moisset

It is September, the days are getting shorter, the weather cooler. Plants put up a display that rivals or even surpasses that of spring. Asters, goldenrods, coneflowers and a number of other similar flowers create a golden explosion in gardens and meadows. Pollinators seem busier than ever, taking advantage of this bounty. Insect flower visitors love yellow and flowers seem to know it. They dress up in colors that attract their favorite visitors in the hope that they carry pollen to other flowers of the same kind. Pollinators, in turn, know that abundant resources await them in the bright yellow flowers.

Fig. 1. Three Helenium blossoms of different ages. © Beatriz Moisset

Let us look at one of these flowers in closer detail. Helenium, also called sneezeweed, has the same structure as sunflowers and asters, a crown of petals and a center made of little knobby structures called florets. Each one of those knobs is an entire flower which produces pollen and seeds. Each one needs to be pollinated in order to produce a seed. The dead heads you see later in the fall are little packages of these nutritious mature seeds that bring joy to passing hungry birds.

Fig. 2. Several Helenium or sneezeweed flowers. © Beatriz Moisset

The florets do not mature all at once. They proceed in an organized fashion from the outer ring to the center, row by row; they open and expose the pollen-carrying anthers and the pistils ready to receive pollen. They also fill up with nectar. Only one row or two at a time are ready to welcome visitors and to be pollinated. Bees know that. Even syrphid flies know that. You can see them moving from floret to floret until they complete the circle. Then they fly to the next blossom. They know enough not to waste time on the unopened flowers or the ones past their prime.

Take a look at figure 1. The sneezeweed blossom near the center is quite fresh; most florets are still closed; only one is almost ready for pollination. The one in the upper right is halfway through; there are still some rows of unopened florets to go. The one below it is approaching old age, almost all done. Now, you can look at Helenium flowers and determine their approximate age just by looking at them. What do you think about the flowers in figure 2?

Smart pollinators, not only know where the food is in each flower, but also know that they will continue to find supplies in the following days. Bumble bees are known to faithfully come back to their favorite flower patches.

Sunflowers and asters do the same. See the following examples:

Sunday, March 2, 2014

The Importance of Native Pollinators

At the risk of repeating myself, I want to discuss once again the widespread erroneous belief that we depend entirely on honey bees for the pollination of one third of our food and that we would all die if they were to disappear. Honey bees are not the only pollinators. We must value all the others and we should learn to take advantage of them for our crops' pollination.

We must remember that 4,000 species of native bees populate this country; 20,000 the entire world. They vary in size, appearance, season of activity, flower preference. . . Some live in colonies similar to those of honey bees, but most are solitary and nest in holes in the ground or in hollow tubes inside soft pitted canes or in holes left behind by beetle larvae.

All of them combined are tremendously important, not just for the pollination of wild flowers but also of some crops. In fact, all the crops pollinated by honey bees could be taken care of by one or another of the numerous species of wild bees.

A few examples of the marvelous things native bees do

*Bumble bees and several solitary bees pollinate tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. Only they know how to manage their flowers. Honey bees cannot do it

*The alfalfa bee and the alkali bee pollinate 80% of the alfalfa flowers they visit. Several bumble bees do just as well. The batting average of honey bees is a mere 20%

*A single southern blueberry bee can pollinate $20 worth of blueberries (probably more at current rates). Honey bees don't come even close

*An acre of apples can be pollinated by 250 female orchard mason bees. This task would require 1.5 to 2 honey bee hives—approximately 15,000 to 20,000 bees

*Squash bees are up early in the morning, when squash flowers are at their peak. Later on, when bumble bees and honey bees arrive, most of the pollination has already taken place

*When the weather is bad, too cold or wet, some native pollinators go out anyway. A few work before sunrise or after sunset. The honey bees prefer to stay home under these conditions

An assortment of pollinators provides a degree of insurance. When the population of one species declines, as it is bound to happen some years, other species take over the slack. This is one of the advantages of diversification. We have depended for too long on just one species.

Despite the advantages of this variety of native pollinators, farmers often resort to honey bees because the wild pollinators are, well, wild, not easily controlled. Honey bees provide a large task force that can be managed and transported where needed. They are perfect for large monocultures, with only one kind of food temporarily available and nothing else the rest of the year.

We shouldn't ignore the contributions of native bees. They can do a superb job at small or medium sized farms. Managing them would require a healthier habitat and less pesticides. A polyculture, the opposite of a monoculture, would also be important.

We are reaching a point in which we cannot rely entirely on just one species of pollinator. The task of changing cultivation practices is huge but it can be done and it needs to be done. The Xerces Society and some universities are committed to developing the ways of putting native pollinators to good use. The results have been highly encouraging.

Additional readings

One Bite our of Three
Don't Underestimate the Native Pollinators

Will We all Die if Honey Bees Disappear?

Bring Back the Native Pollinators! We need them more than Ever

Farming with Pollinators, the Xerces Society
Wild Pollinators, Agriculture’s Forgotten Partners. WildFarm Alliance
Native Pollinators. Wildlife Habitat Council

List of articles
Beginners Guide to Pollinators and Other Flower Visitors

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Don't Underestimate the Native Pollinators

Honey bee and several native bees on flowers of fruit trees

The concern for honey bees has exploded in recent years. A day doesn't go by without a new article on the media or comments on numerous nature blogs. Some are agonized cries of help with words such as: Save the bees to save our food supply! Honey bees are going extinct, we are next! Almost completely lost in the shuffle are native pollinators, namely the 4,000 species of bees in the US.

Most of the public is unaware that native pollinators could supply a substantial amount of crop pollination. In many instances one or another native bee or an entire cadre of them results in more efficient pollination than that of honey bees. Here are a few examples:

In an apple orchard, 250 orchard mason bees can do as much as 15,000 to 20,000 honey bees. Squash bees are early risers and are likely to do more pollination of pumpkins and squash than the late arrivals—honey bees and bumble bees. The Southeastern blueberry bee, Habropoda laboriosa, is capable of pollinating $20 worth of blueberries in her lifetime. Many native bees work in wetter or colder weather than honey bees. The alkali bee and the non-native alfalfa leaf cutter bee pollinate a higher percentage of visited flowers than honey bees do. Some small orchards and vegetable fields get most of their pollination done by native bees.

Many native bees practice buzz pollination,

needed by tomatoes and other crops

All and all according to some studies, native bees provide $3 billion worth of pollination to agriculture, while honey bees' contribution is valued at $15-18 billion. If we put native bees to work, we could reverse these proportions. Perhaps the best way out of the so-called honey bee crisis is to find the way to take better advantage of the other bees. How difficult would that be?

A hundred years ago native bees played an important role on crop pollination. As far back as seventy or eighty years, several authors noticed that bumble bee and solitary bee populations were dropping. This loss was most noticeable in larger farms where sometimes fruit or vegetable yield suffered by the absence of pollinators. Nobody seemed terribly concerned as long as the honey bee could be brought into service. Some observers knew that native bees were more efficient in many cases, but felt that the ease with which honey bees can be managed compensated for this drawback.

Some native bees are just as efficient as honey bees

at pollinating fruit trees

Intensive farming grew as did the need for pesticides, and beehives started to be transported long distances and in large numbers to do their duty. It was the birth of the pollination industry involving beekeeping practices far removed from what would be considered natural. It shouldn't surprise us that such an unsustainable system is causing troubles for honey bees.

Can we bring native pollinators back after they continued to lose ground for the past century? Are there enough left around to take over the task of pollinating our crops? Even without statistics, we can be sure that only a tiny fraction of the previous populations remains. Perhaps, some species are precariously hanging on the verge of extinction or have already disappeared.

No species takes the road to extinction willingly. Every creature, large or small, fights tooth and nail, or mandible and tarsal claw as the case may be, to stay alive and procreate. A few years ago, an entomologist found a miner bee's nest in a flower pot in his backyard. Another bee expert encountered a rare species of bee, regarded close to extinction, in the very heart of Washington DC, in a butterfly garden at the Washington Mall. With remarkable tenacity, these little survivors had managed to find just enough resources and shelter to raise their families in the middle of the concrete jungle.

We should not give up hope. Native pollinator populations can be brought back to the levels of yesteryear; perhaps then they can resume pollinating the crops that feed us.

Update, April, 2014. I followed some published reports when I said "native bees provide $3 billion worth of pollination to agriculture, while honey bees' contribution is valued at $15-18 billion." However this may be shortchanging native pollinators. Perhaps they do a lot more. A publication by Claire Kremen states that in California native pollinators are responsible for $2.4 billions and honey bees for $3.9 billions. In other words, in that state native pollinators are responsible for almost 40% of all agricultural pollination. I will keep searching the truth.

List of articles

One Bite our of Three