Foraging strategies and physiological adaptations in large carpenter bees

Somanathan, Hema; Saryan, Preeti; Balamurali, G. S.

doi:10.1007/s00359-019-01323-7

Cited by 21 publications

(20 citation statements)

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“…Recent studies have shown that transitions to nocturnality in bees, as in the paleotropical carpenter bee X. tranquebarica we studied and the neotropical sweat bee Megalopta genalis, are accompanied by remarkable visual adaptations in their apposition eyes (Greiner et al, 2004a,b, Warrant et al, 2004Theobald et al, 2006;Somanathan et al, 2008bSomanathan et al, , 2009aSomanathan et al, , 2019Warrant, 2008), including color discrimination under dim FIGURE 6 | Floral resource use in the three carpenter bee species. (A) Overall bipartite resource use network combining flower visitation observations, body pollen loads and nest pollen for the nocturnal X. tranquebarica (Xtran) and the diurnal X. tenuiscapa (Xtenu) and X. leucothorax (Xleuc).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is particularly interesting because diurnal bees are generally known to show flower constancy during foraging bouts (Grant, 1950;Waser, 1986). Moreover, diurnal bees including carpenter bees are known to trap line during foraging bouts by moving between flowering individuals of a species in a fixed sequence (Saleh and Chittka, 2007;Somanathan et al, 2019). However, during a single foraging trip from the nest, the nocturnal X. tranquebarica collected pollen from more flower species than the diurnal species.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some species are facultatively nocturnal (Dyer, 1985;Somanathan et al, 2009b) to exploit a transiently available resource. Best studied amongst dim-light bees are the crepuscular halictid Megalopta genalis in Panama (Greiner et al, 2004a,b;Warrant et al, 2004;Kelber et al, 2006;Warrant, 2008) and the truly nocturnal carpenter bee Xylocopa tranquebarica in India (Somanathan et al, 2008a(Somanathan et al, ,b, 2009a(Somanathan et al, , 2019. Recent research on dim-light vision has revealed remarkable anatomical and neurophysiological adaptations in a range of insects, including nocturnal bees (Warrant et al, 2004;Kelber et al, 2006;Somanathan et al, 2008a,b, Warrant andDacke, 2011;Foster et al, 2017;Narendra and Ramirez-Esquivel, 2017;Stöckl et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We integrate patterns of nocturnal flight activity with floral resource use to comprehensively examine for the first time, what shapes and constrains foraging in nocturnal bees by studying a group of sympatric carpenter bees in India. Xylocopa tranquebarica is truly nocturnal while X. tenuiscapa and X. leucothorax are sympatric diurnal species (Somanathan et al, 2008a(Somanathan et al, , 2019. We evaluate the costs and benefits of nocturnality by examining flight activity across moon phases and resource use and we used population sizes and number of breeding episodes per year (voltinism) as a proxy for fitness across the bee species.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Nocturnal Bees Feed on Diurnal Leftovers and Pay the Price of Day – Night Lifestyle Transition

et al. 2020

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Bees exemplify flights under bright sunlight. A few species across bee families have evolved nocturnality, displaying remarkable adaptations to overcome limitations of their daylight-suited apposition eyes. Phase inversion to nocturnality in a minority of bees that co-exist with diurnal bees provides a unique opportunity to study ecological benefits that mediate total temporal niche shifts. While floral traits and sensory modalities associated with the evolution of classical nocturnal pollination syndromes, e.g. by bats and moths, are well-studied, nocturnality in bees represents a poorly understood, recently invaded, extreme niche. To test the competitive release hypothesis, we examine how nocturnality shapes foraging by comparing pollen loads, nest pollen, and flower visitation of sympatric nocturnal and diurnal carpenter bees. We predicted that nocturnal bees primarily use night-blooming flowers, show little/no resource overlap with diurnal species and competitive release favors night-time pollen collection for provisioning. Contrarily, we found substantial resource overlap between nocturnal and diurnal bees. Flower opening times, floral longevity and plant abundance did not define nocturnal flower use. Smaller pollen loads on nocturnal foragers suggest subsistence on resource leftovers largely from diurnal flowers. Greater pollen types/diversity on nocturnal foragers indicate lower floral constancy compared to diurnal congenerics. Reduced activity during new moon compared to full moon suggests constraints to nocturnal foraging. Invasion and sustenance within the nocturnal niche is characterized by: (i) opportunistic foraging on residual resources as indicated by smaller pollen loads, extensive utilization of day-blooming flowers and substantial overlap with diurnal bees, (ii) generalization at two levels-between and within foraging trips as indicated by lower floral constancy, (iii) reduced foraging on darker nights, indicating visual constraints despite sensitive optics. This together with smaller populations and univoltine breeding in nocturnal compared to multivoltine diurnal counterparts suggest that nocturnality imposes substantial fitness costs. In conclusion, the evolution of nocturnality in bees is accompanied by resource generalization instead of specialization. Reduced floral constancy suggests differences in foraging strategies of nocturnal and diurnal bees which merits further investigation. The relative roles of competition, floral rewards and predators should be examined to fully understand the evolution and maintenance of nocturnality in bees.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Nocturnal Bees Feed on Diurnal Leftovers and Pay the Price of Day – Night Lifestyle Transition

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“…A European honeybee can detect the same flower when it fills 3 • or 5 • of their visual field, thus from a distance of 12 to 18 cm (e.g., [28,59,60]), and a medium-sized bumblebee can detect this flower from a distance of 30 cm, when it subtends 1.8 • (see Table 3; [62] but see [19] for the effect of body and eye size variation). Spatial resolution of the large carpenter bees is likely even higher but has not been determined behaviorally [63]. Spatial contrast sensitivity, which relates contrast sensitivity and spatial resolution, has been behaviorally estimated only rarely in bees, by finding contrast sensitivity thresholds for gratings of different spatial frequencies [58,66].…”

Section: Foraging: Flower Detectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial Vision and Visually Guided Behavior in Apidae

Kelber

Somanathan

2019

Insects

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The family Apidae, which is amongst the largest bee families, are important pollinators globally and have been well studied for their visual adaptations and visually guided behaviors. This review is a synthesis of what is known about their eyes and visual capabilities. There are many species-specific differences, however, the relationship between body size, eye size, resolution, and sensitivity shows common patterns. Salient differences between castes and sexes are evident in important visually guided behaviors such as nest defense and mate search. We highlight that Apis mellifera and Bombus terrestris are popular bee models employed in the majority of studies that have contributed immensely to our understanding vision in bees. However, other species, specifically the tropical and many non-social Apidae, merit further investigation for a better understanding of the influence of ecological conditions on the evolution of bee vision.

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Wild non-eusocial bees learn a colour discrimination task in response to simulated predation events

Howard

2021

Sci Nat

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Foraging strategies and physiological adaptations in large carpenter bees

Cited by 21 publications

References 93 publications

Nocturnal Bees Feed on Diurnal Leftovers and Pay the Price of Day – Night Lifestyle Transition

Nocturnal Bees Feed on Diurnal Leftovers and Pay the Price of Day – Night Lifestyle Transition

Spatial Vision and Visually Guided Behavior in Apidae

Wild non-eusocial bees learn a colour discrimination task in response to simulated predation events

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