Pollen analysis of honeybee rectum as a method to record the bee pollen flora of an area

Dimou, Maria; Thrasyvoulou, Andreas

doi:10.1051/apido/2008066

Cited by 21 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Eight of the plants we identified as pollen sources for the bees in Israel: Diplotaxis erucoides, Plantago lagopus, Reseda sp., Senecio joppensis, Lycium sp., Scandix iberica, Trifolium stellatum, and Vicia narbonensis were also reported from other regions of the world (Table 3) (Andrada and Telleria, 2005;Dimou and Thrasyvoulou, 2007b;Bilisik et al, 2008;Dimou and Thrasyvoulou, 2009). Eight of the plants we identified as pollen sources for the bees in Israel: Diplotaxis erucoides, Plantago lagopus, Reseda sp., Senecio joppensis, Lycium sp., Scandix iberica, Trifolium stellatum, and Vicia narbonensis were also reported from other regions of the world (Table 3) (Andrada and Telleria, 2005;Dimou and Thrasyvoulou, 2007b;Bilisik et al, 2008;Dimou and Thrasyvoulou, 2009).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 64%

Pollen sources for honeybees in Israel: Source, periods of shortage, and influence on population growth

Avni¹,

Dag²,

Shafir³

2009

Israel Journal of Plant Sciences

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The nutritional demands of honeybees are met by two plant-produced components: nectar and pollen, the contents of which vary among floral sources. In Israel, there is an extraordinary richness in plant species, and one of the dominant insect pollinators is the honeybee (Apis mellifera L.). July to February is characterized as a period of low flower abundance for local species in general and for bee forage plants in particular. In this study, we monitored the amount and number of pollen sources collected by honeybees, and where possible also identified the plant source of pollen, in four geographically distinct sites in Israel. We also assessed honeybee colonies (population level, sealed brood area, and pollen and honey stores) and studied the effect of pollen levels on population growth. Our results show that peak pollen-collection times differ according to site. The number of pollen sources from trapped pollen pellets varied during the year, between sites, and between colonies in the same site, and ranged between 5 and 20 plant species per sampling date per site. The most abundant pollen source in each sample comprised between 22 and 94% of the pollen pellets. There were only a few cases in which pollen was collected from fewer than five or more than nine plants in each colony's sample. Thus, colonies seem to specialize in only a small number of species of the available flora. Overall, in all sites, the daily amount of pollen collected was significantly correlated with sealed brood and pollen store areas.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 64%

Pollen sources for honeybees in Israel: Source, periods of shortage, and influence on population growth

Avni¹,

Dag²,

Shafir³

2009

Israel Journal of Plant Sciences

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“…Sampling of pollen loads using traps attached to natural colonies was done with Trigona collina (Smith) in Malaysia (Eltz et al 2001) and with A. mellifera in Europe (Imdorf 1983, Imdorf & Wille 1983. Studies of pollen diets based on pollen loads usually utilize pollen collectors in Langstroth type hives , Modro et al 2007, direct removal of pollen loads from the corbicula (Fernandes-da-Silva & Serrão 2000, Webby 2004), extracted pollen from colony storage pots (Cortopassi-Laurino & Ramalho 1988, Antonini & Martins 2003 or examination of pollen content in the rectum of honeybees (Dimou & Thrasyvoulou 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pollen Analysis Reveals Plants Foraged by Africanized Honeybees in the Southern Pantanal, Brazil

Boff¹,

Luz²,

Araujo³

et al. 2011

Neotrop. entomol.

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“…Managed honey bee colonies can be fitted with pollen traps to collect seasonally stratified samples of pollen from foraging honey bees (Smart et al 2018a), and such sampling can be spatially and temporally replicated with minimal effort when compared to other common methods for collecting pollen samples from bees or flowers. Pollen collected from honey bees and native bees has been previously used to quantify floral resource use as well as to test how pollen quality and quantity may vary across a landscape (Beil et al 2008, Dimou and Thrasyvoulou 2009, Di Pasquale et al 2016, Vaudo et al 2018, Wood et al 2018. Using pollen samples collected from foraging honey bees could provide researchers an opportunity to quantify the abundance and nutritional quality of floral resources available to both managed and native bees over the course of the growing season as well as across land-use gradients.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Do the Quality and Quantity of Honey Bee-Collected Pollen Vary Across an Agricultural Land-Use Gradient?

Simanonok

Otto

Smart

2019

Environmental Entomology

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Pollen is the source of protein for most bee species, yet the quality and quantity of pollen is variable across landscapes and growing seasons. Understanding the role of landscapes in providing nutritious forage to bees is important for pollinator health, particularly in areas undergoing significant land-use change such as in the Northern Great Plains (NGP) region of the United States where grasslands are being converted to row crops. We investigated how the quality and quantity of pollen collected by honey bees (Apis mellifera L. [Hymenoptera: Apidae]) changed with land use and across the growing season by sampling bee-collected pollen from apiaries in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota, USA, throughout the flowering season in 2015–2016. We quantified protein content and quantity of pollen to investigate how they varied temporally and across a land-use gradient of grasslands to row crops. Neither pollen weight nor crude protein content varied linearly across the land-use gradient; however, there were significant interactions between land use and sampling date across the season, particularly in grasslands. Generally, pollen protein peaked mid-July while pollen weight had two maxima in late-June and late-August. Results suggest that while land use itself may not correlate with the quality or quantity of pollen resources collected by honey bees among our study apiaries, the nutritional landscape of the NGP is seasonally dynamic, especially in certain land covers, and may impose seasonal resource limitations for both managed and native bee species. Furthermore, results indicate periods of qualitative and quantitative pollen dearth may not coincide.

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Pollen analysis of honeybee rectum as a method to record the bee pollen flora of an area

Cited by 21 publications

References 36 publications

Pollen sources for honeybees in Israel: Source, periods of shortage, and influence on population growth

Pollen sources for honeybees in Israel: Source, periods of shortage, and influence on population growth

Pollen Analysis Reveals Plants Foraged by Africanized Honeybees in the Southern Pantanal, Brazil

Do the Quality and Quantity of Honey Bee-Collected Pollen Vary Across an Agricultural Land-Use Gradient?

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