Resin-foraging by colonies ofTrigona sapiensandT. hockingsi(Hymenoptera: Apidae, Meliponini) and consequent seed dispersal ofCorymbia torelliana(Myrtaceae)

Wallace, Helen M.; Lee, Dong Hoon

doi:10.1051/apido/20079074

Cited by 8 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Stingless bee workers are known to rarely switch from or to resin foraging behavior during the day, which keeps resin forager numbers fairly steady (Inoue et al. ; Wallace and Lee ). An overall higher foraging activity in gardens therefore allows hives to collect more pollen and nectar, while gathering similar total amounts of resin, compared to hives with lower foraging activities in forests or plantations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban gardens promote bee foraging over natural habitats and plantations

Kaluza

Wallace

Heard

et al. 2016

Ecology and Evolution

112

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Increasing human land use for agriculture and housing leads to the loss of natural habitat and to widespread declines in wild bees. Bee foraging dynamics and fitness depend on the availability of resources in the surrounding landscape, but how precisely landscape related resource differences affect bee foraging patterns remains unclear. To investigate how landscape and its interaction with season and weather drive foraging and resource intake in social bees, we experimentally compared foraging activity, the allocation of foragers to different resources (pollen, nectar, and resin) and overall resource intake in the Australian stingless bee Tetragonula carbonaria (Apidae, Meliponini). Bee colonies were monitored in different seasons over two years. We compared foraging patterns and resource intake between the bees' natural habitat (forests) and two landscapes differently altered by humans (suburban gardens and agricultural macadamia plantations). We found foraging activity as well as pollen and nectar forager numbers to be highest in suburban gardens, intermediate in forests and low in plantations. Foraging patterns further differed between seasons, but seasonal variations strongly differed between landscapes. Sugar and pollen intake was low in plantations, but contrary with our predictions, it was even higher in gardens than in forests. In contrast, resin intake was similar across landscapes. Consequently, differences in resource availability between natural and altered landscapes strongly affect foraging patterns and thus resource intake in social bees. While agricultural monocultures largely reduce foraging success, suburban gardens can increase resource intake well above rates found in natural habitats of bees, indicating that human activities can both decrease and increase the availability of resources in a landscape and thus reduce or enhance bee fitness.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban gardens promote bee foraging over natural habitats and plantations

Kaluza

Wallace

Heard

et al. 2016

Ecology and Evolution

112

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“…Social bees typically collect plant resins from a wide variety of tree species (Roubik , Leonhardt and Blüthgen , Simone et al. ), but prefer some tree species over others (Leonhardt and Blüthgen , Wallace and Lee , Wilson et al. , Drescher et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Generalist social bees maximize diversity intake in plant species‐rich and resource‐abundant environments

et al. 2017

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. 2017.Generalist social bees maximize diversity intake in plant species-rich and resource-abundant environments. Ecosphere 8(3):e01758. 10. 1002/ecs2.1758 Abstract. Numerous studies revealed a positive relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, suggesting that biodiverse environments may not only enhance ecosystem processes, but also benefit individual ecosystem members by, for example, providing a higher diversity of resources. Whether and how the number of available resources affects resource collection and subsequently consumers (e.g., through impacting functions associated with resources) have, however, been little investigated, although a better understanding of this relationship may help explain why the abundance and richness of many animal species typically decline with decreasing plant (resource) diversity. Using a social bee species as model (Tetragonula carbonaria), we investigated how plant species richness-recorded for study sites located in different habitats-and associated resource abundance affected the diversity and functionality (here defined as nutritional content and antimicrobial activity) of resources (i.e., pollen, nectar, and resin) collected by a generalist herbivorous consumer. The diversity of both pollen and resin collected strongly increased with increasing plant/tree species richness, while resource abundance was only positively correlated with resin diversity. These findings suggest that bees maximize resource diversity intake in (resource) diverse habitats. Collecting more diverse resources did, however, not increase their functionality, which appeared to be primarily driven by the surrounding (plant) source community in our study. In generalist herbivores, maximizing resource diversity intake may therefore primarily secure collection of sufficient amounts of resources across the entire foraging season, but it also ensures that the allocated resources meet all functional needs. Decreasing available resource diversity may thus impact consumers primarily by reduced resource abundance, but also by reduced resource functionality, particularly when resources of high functionality (e.g., from specific plant species) become scarce.

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“…In contrast, resin‐derived compounds were comparatively rare (and partly absent) in Austroplebeia species (except A. symei ), revealing a strong difference in chemical ecology between these two genera of stingless bees. The chemical difference may be linked to differences in foraging behaviour: Tetragonula species are known to collect resin in relatively large quantities, with up to 10% of all foragers in a given colony‐collecting resin (Wallace & Trueman 1995; Wallace & Lee 2010). In contrast, resin collection is comparatively rare in Austroplebeia (T. Heard, pers.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Bees are further used as seed dispersers (mellitochory) by the rainforest eucalypt Corymbia torelliana (Wallace & Trueman 1995; Wallace et al . 2008; Wallace & Lee 2010), the tree legume Zygia racemosa (Bacelar‐Lima et al . 2006) and the epiphyte Coussapoa asperifolia (Garcia et al .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The cuticular profiles of Australian stingless bees are shaped by resin of the eucalypt tree Corymbia torelliana

Leonhardt¹,

Wallace²,

Schmitt³

2010

Austral Ecology

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Bees are known to collect pollen and nectar to provide their larvae and themselves with food.That bees, especially the tropical stingless bees (Apidae: Meliponini), also collect plant resins has, however, been barely addressed in scientific studies on resource use in bees. Resins are used for nest construction, nest maintenance and nest defence. Furthermore, some South-East Asian species transfer resin-derived terpenes to their cuticular profiles. The resin requirement of bees is in turn used by certain plant species, which attract bees either for pollination by providing resin in their inflorescences, or for seed dispersal by providing resin in their seed capsules (mellitochory). Mellitochory is found in the eucalypt tree Corymbia torelliana, the resin of which is collected by Australian stingless bees. We investigated how the interaction between C. torelliana and resin-collecting bees affects the chemical ecology of two Australian stingless bee genera by comparing the chemical profiles of eight bee species with resin from C. torelliana fruits. The two bee genera differed significantly in their chemical profiles. Similar to South-East Asian stingless bees, 51% of all compounds on the body surfaces of the five Tetragonula species were most likely derived from plant resins. Up to 32 compounds were identical with compounds from C. torelliana resin, suggesting that Tetragonula species include C. torelliana compounds in their chemical profiles. By contrast, few or none resinous compounds were found on the body surfaces of the three Austroplebeia species sampled. However, one prominent but as yet unknown substance was found in both C. torelliana resin and the chemical profiles of all Tetragonula and four Austroplebeia colonies sampled, suggesting that most colonies (76%) gathered resin from C. torelliana. Hence, C. torelliana resin may be commonly collected by Australian stingless bees and, along with resins from other plant species, shape their chemical ecology.a ec_2184 537..543

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Resin-foraging by colonies ofTrigona sapiensandT. hockingsi(Hymenoptera: Apidae, Meliponini) and consequent seed dispersal ofCorymbia torelliana(Myrtaceae)

Cited by 8 publications

References 18 publications

Urban gardens promote bee foraging over natural habitats and plantations

Urban gardens promote bee foraging over natural habitats and plantations

Generalist social bees maximize diversity intake in plant species‐rich and resource‐abundant environments

The cuticular profiles of Australian stingless bees are shaped by resin of the eucalypt tree Corymbia torelliana

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