Honeydew Collecting in Malagasy Stingless Bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Meliponini) and Observations on Competition with Invasive Ants

Koch, Hauke; Corcoran, C.; Jonker, Marlotte

doi:10.4001/003.019.0111

Cited by 23 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…However, it is important to note that bees and syrphid flies also visit wind‐pollinated plants for non‐floral resources, for example insect honeydew (e.g. Santas, ; Koch et al ., ), plant resins (e.g. Leonhardt & Blüthgen, ), or resinous/sweet secretions produced from leaf tissue (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Insect pollinators collect pollen from wind‐pollinated plants: implications for pollination ecology and sustainable agriculture

Saunders

2017

Insect Conserv Diversity

121

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1. Current research, management and outreach programmes relevant to insect pollinator conservation are strongly focused on relationships between pollinators and insect-pollinated crops and wild plants.2. Pollinators also visit wind-pollinated plants to collect pollen, or for nest sites and materials, but these interactions are largely overlooked. I review documented records of bee and syrphid fly species collecting pollen from wind-pollinated plant taxa, including economically important crops, and provide the most comprehensive collation of peer-reviewed records of pollinators visiting windpollinated plants to date. I argue for more basic research into functional relationships between insect pollinators and wind-pollinated plants.3. I found over 200 visitation records for 101 wind-pollinated plant genera in 25 families, including 4 of the 12 gymnosperm families. Almost half the records (49%) were for grasses and sedges (Poales). I also identified records of bees and/or syrphid flies visiting 10 economically important wind-pollinated crop plant species, including three major grain crops (rice, corn, and sorghum). Most records (70%) were from indirect pollen analysis from hives, nest cells or insect bodies, highlighting the need for more direct observational studies of plant-pollinator interactions.4. Insect pollinator communities require resource diversity to persist in a landscape. Hence, researchers and land managers aiming to identify links between pollinators and ecosystem function should also consider broader interactions beyond the standard traits of the entomophily syndrome.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Insect pollinators collect pollen from wind‐pollinated plants: implications for pollination ecology and sustainable agriculture

Saunders

2017

Insect Conserv Diversity

121

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“…Pollen and nectar from urban trees also have good nutritional quality for bees (Somme et al., 2016). Sugar‐rich honeydew produced by sap‐sucking insects on trees is also collected by some bees (Koch, Corcoran, & Jonker, 2011; Requier & Leonhardt, 2020). Tree cavities are used as nest sites by social bee colonies, including some honey bees, stingless bees, and bumblebees (Aidar, Santos, Bartelli, Martins, & Nogueira‐Ferreira, 2013; Bentrup et al., 2019; Hill & Webster, 1995).…”

Section: Urban Trees and Beesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The state of the world’s urban ecosystems: What can we learn from trees, fungi, and bees?

Stevenson

Bidartondo

Blackhall-Miles³

et al. 2020

Plants People Planet

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“…Honeydew is a nectar-like carbohydrate-rich excretion produced as a feeding by-product by phytophagous Hemipterans, such as scale insects (Hemiptera: Coccoidea) and aphids (Hemiptera: Aphididae), that can sometimes be more nutrient-rich than floral nectar (Batra 1993). Some insects, most notably ants, attain increased fitness and longevity by using honeydew as an additional sugar source (Zoebelein 1957;Wäckers et al 2008;Koch et al 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…CC-BY 4.0 International license a certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not this version posted October 21, 2016. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/082271 doi: bioRxiv preprint Honeydew use among bees, while digestively plausible and potentially broadly advantageous given global concern about bee declines and their temporal isolation from host flowers (Potts et al 2010;Bartomeus et al 2011), has been only sparsely documented, usually as isolated occurrences, and almost exclusively among social, colonial species (Santas 1983;Crane and Walker 1985;Batra 1993;Bishop 1994;Konrad et al 2009;Koch et al 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bees without Flowers: Before Peak Bloom, Diverse Native Bees Find Insect-Produced Honeydew Sugars

Meiners

Griswold

Harris

et al. 2017

The American Naturalist

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Bee foragers respond to complex visual, olfactory, and extrasensory cues to optimize searches for floral rewards. Their abilities to detect and distinguish floral colors, shapes, volatiles, and ultraviolet signals and even gauge nectar availability from changes in floral humidity or electric fields are well studied. Bee foraging behaviors in the absence of floral cues, however, are rarely considered. We observed 42 species of wild bees visiting inconspicuous, nonflowering shrubs during early spring in a protected Mediterranean habitat. We determined experimentally that these bees were accessing sugary honeydew secretions from scale insects without the aid of standard cues. While honeydew use is known among some social Hymenoptera, its use across a diverse community of solitary bees is a novel observation. The widespread ability of native bees to locate and use unadvertised, nonfloral sugars suggests unappreciated sensory mechanisms and/or the existence of an interspecific foraging network among solitary bees that may influence how native bees cope with scarcity of floral resources and increasing environmental change.

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Honeydew Collecting in Malagasy Stingless Bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Meliponini) and Observations on Competition with Invasive Ants

Cited by 23 publications

References 14 publications

Insect pollinators collect pollen from wind‐pollinated plants: implications for pollination ecology and sustainable agriculture

Insect pollinators collect pollen from wind‐pollinated plants: implications for pollination ecology and sustainable agriculture

The state of the world’s urban ecosystems: What can we learn from trees, fungi, and bees?

Bees without Flowers: Before Peak Bloom, Diverse Native Bees Find Insect-Produced Honeydew Sugars

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