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562 results for “bumblebee”
Bumblebee colony density on farmland is influenced by late-summer nectar supply and garden cover
<p>1. Floral resources are important in limiting pollinator populations, but they are often highly variable across time and space and the effect of this variation on pollinator population dynamics is not well understood. The phenology (timing) of floral resources is thought to be important in structuring pollinator populations, but few studies have directly investigated this. 2. Our study quantifies the landscape composition, seasonal nectar and pollen supply, and <i>Bombus terrestris</i> colony density of 12 farms in southwest UK to investigate how landscape composition influences the phenology of floral resources and how both these factors affect colony density. We use this information in a spatially explicit predictive model to estimate the effect of different farmland management scenarios on seasonal resource supplies and colony density. 3. We find that farmland nectar supply during September is a strong predictor of <i>B. terrestris</i> colony density in the following year, explaining over half of all the variation in colony density; no other period of resource availability showed a significant association. Semi-natural habitat cover was not a good proxy for nectar or pollen supply and showed no significant association with colony density. However, the proportional cover of gardens in the landscape was significantly associated with colony density. 4. The predictive model results suggest that increasing the area of semi-natural flowering habitat has limited effect on bumblebee populations. However, improving the quality of these habitats through Environmental Stewardship and other management options is predicted to reduce the late-summer resource bottleneck and increase colony density. 5. Synthesis and Applications: Our results demonstrate the importance of considering the phenology of resources, rather than just total resource availability, when designing measures to support pollinators. Late-summer appears to be a resource bottleneck for bumblebees in UK farmland, and consequently management strategies which increase late-summer nectar availability may be the most effective. These include mowing regimes to delay flowering of field margins until September, planting late-flowering cover crops such as red clover, and supporting late-flowering wild plant species such as <i>Hedera helix</i>. Our results also suggest that rural gardens may play an important role in supporting farmland bumblebee populations.</p>
Fig. 2 in Cephalic labial gland secretions of males as species recognition signals in bumblebees: are there really geographical variations in the secretions of the Bombus terrestris subspecies? (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Bombus)
Fig. 2: Legends on p. 106
Wild bumblebees use both absolute and relative evaluation when foraging
<p>Foraging theory assumes that animals assess value based on objective payoffs, however, animals often evaluate rewards comparatively, forming expectations based on recent experience. This form of evaluation may be particularly relevant for nectar foragers such as bumblebees, where individuals can visit thousands of flowers daily that vary in nectar quality. While many animals, including bees, demonstrate reference-based evaluation in experimental contexts, it is unclear whether this occurs in the wild. Here we asked how daily experience with wildflower nectar influenced wild bumblebees' reward evaluation.<strong> </strong>We measured the daily nectar concentration of bee-visited wildflowers (<em>Penstemon </em>spp<em>.</em>), before presenting foragers with conspecific flowers filled with a range of artificial nectar concentrations. We recorded bees' acceptance of artificial nectar, probability of subsequent visits to flowers on the same plant, and residence time. While bees had a minimum threshold of nectar acceptability that was unaffected by experience, when there was higher-concentration environmental nectar, they were less likely to accept lower-quality rewards on manipulated plants. Bees also visited more flowers and stayed longer on plants with higher-concentration nectar. This study shows evidence for both absolute and reference-based evaluation in wild bees and points towards differences between bees' behavior in lab- and wild-foraging contexts.</p>
Unveiling the submerged secrets: bumblebee queens' resilience to flooding
<p>In a previous study, an experimental oversight led to the accumulation of water filling a container housing diapausing bumblebee queens. Surprisingly, after draining the water, the queens were found to be alive. This observation raises a compelling question: can bumblebee queens endure periods of inundation while overwintering underground? To address this question, we conducted an experiment using 143 common eastern bumblebee (<em>Bombus impatiens</em>) queens placed in soil-filled tubes and subjected to artificially induced diapause in a refrigerated unit for seven days. Tap water was then added to the tubes and queens (n=21/treatment) were either maintained underwater using a plunger-like apparatus or left to float naturally on the water's surface for varying durations (8h, 24h, or 7 days) while remaining in overwintering conditions. Seventeen queens served as controls. After the submersion period, queens were removed from the water, transferred to new tubes with soil, and kept in cold storage for 8 weeks. Overall queen survival remained consistently high (89.5 ± 6.4%) across all treatments and did not differ among submersion regimes and durations. These results demonstrate the remarkable ability of diapausing <em>B. impatiens</em> queens to withstand submersion underwater for up to one week, indicating their adaptations to survive periods of flooding in the wild.</p>
Data from: Evidence for socially influenced and potentially actively coordinated cooperation by bumblebees
<p>Cooperation is common in animals, yet the specific mechanisms driving collaborative behaviour in different species remain unclear. We investigated the proximate mechanisms underlying the cooperative behaviour of bumblebees in two different tasks, where bees had to simultaneously push a block in an arena or a door at the end of a tunnel for access to reward. In both tasks, when their partner's entry into the arena/tunnel was delayed, bees took longer to first push the block/door, compared to control bees that learned to push alone. In the tunnel task, just before gaining access to reward, bees were more likely to face towards their partner than expected by chance or compared to controls. These results show that bumblebees' cooperative behaviour is not simply a by-product of individual efforts but is socially influenced. We discuss how bees' turning behaviours, e.g. turning around before first reaching the door when their partner was delayed and turning back towards the door in response to seeing their partner heading towards the door, suggest active coordination at its simplest level – i.e. bumblebees may have a basic understanding of their partner's role in cooperative tasks. Future studies are needed to help determine the complexity and limitations of this understanding.</p>
Testing nectar price effect on bumblebee feeding by automatized computer-controlled laboratory platform
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Label-based expectations affect reward perception in bumblebees
<p>While classic models of animal decision-making assume that individuals objectively assess the absolute value of options, decades of research have shown that rewards are often evaluated relative to prior experience, creating 'contrast effects'. Contrast effects are often assumed to be purely sensory, yet consumer psychology tells us that label-based expectations can affect value perception. However, this has rarely been tested in non-model systems. Bumblebees forage on a variety of flower types that vary in their signals and rewards and show clear contrast effects when rewards are lower than their immediate previous experience. Here we manipulated bees' expectations of a stimulus' quality, before downshifting the reward to induce incentive contrast. We found that contrast effects were not solely driven by prior experience with a better reward, but also influenced by experience with associated stimuli. Bees were faster to accept the lower-quality reward when it was paired with a novel rather than a familiar stimulus. We then explored the boundaries of these label-based expectations by testing bees along a stimulus gradient and found that expectations generalized to similar stimuli. Such reference-dependent evaluations may play an important role in bees' foraging choices, with the potential to impact floral evolution and plant community dynamics.</p>
Algal growth, bumblebee colony and individual development, bee behavior and yield of oilseed rape under a trophic cascade and extreme weather
<p><span>Trophic cascades in the aquatic environment constitute important mechanisms for improving water quality. However, how the presence or non-presence of these trophic cascades may affect interactions across the aquatic-terrestrial interface remains poorly investigated. Pollinators such as bees may be especially vulnerable to changes in water resource quality induced by trophic cascades. Understanding how aquatic trophic cascades affect bees and pollination becomes even more pressing under ongoing climate change due to increased physiological demands for water under extreme weather events.</span><span>In a novel field experiment combining terrestrial and aquatic mesocosms, we aimed to test how changes in water quality induced by an aquatic trophic cascade </span><span>affected foraging and growth of bumblebee colonies as well as foraging of solitary bees. While we expected fish predation to reduce top-down control of zooplankton on phytoplankton and thereby, indirectly, induce increased growth of toxic cyanobacteria</span><span>, we instead found the trophic cascade to induce the formation of algal surface mats that bumblebees used to access water under a severe heat wave and drought. This access to water was associated with higher bumblebee colony reproductive success, growth and weight compared to control colonies with no trophic cascade induced (and hence no algal surface mats). We also found marginal </span><span>but non-significant</span><span> effects on oilseed rape yield, but surprisingly with higher yields in the control treatment where bumblebees could not access water.</span><span>Our results provide new insights on how aquatic trophic cascades can lead to unpredicted ecological interactions across the aquatic-terrestrial interface facilitated by climate change. Our study highlights the importance of water for the fitness of terrestrial ecosystem service providers under altered environmental conditions.</span></p>
A genomic and morphometric analysis of alpine bumblebees: Ongoing reductions in tongue length but no clear genetic component
<p>Over the last six decades, populations of the bumblebees <em>Bombus sylvicola</em> and <em>Bombus balteatus</em> in Colorado have experienced decreases in tongue length, a trait important for plant-pollinator mutualisms. It has been hypothesized that this observation reflects selection resulting from shifts in floral composition under climate change. Here we used morphometrics and population genomics to determine whether morphological change is ongoing, investigate the genetic basis of morphological variation, and analyse population structure in these populations.</p> <p>We analysed whole-genome sequencing data and morphometric measurements of 580 samples of both species from seven high-altitude localities. Out of 281 samples originally identified as <em>B</em>. <em>sylvicola</em>, 67 formed a separate genetic cluster comprising a newly-discovered cryptic species ("incognitus"). However, an absence of genetic structure within species suggests that gene flow is common between mountains. We did not discover any genetic associations with tongue length, but a SNP related to production of a proteolytic digestive enzyme was implicated in body size variation. We identified evidence of covariance between kinship and both tongue length and body size, which is suggestive of a genetic component of these traits, although it is possible that shared environmental effects between colonies are responsible. Our results provide evidence for ongoing modification of a morphological trait important for pollination and indicate that this trait probably has a complex genetic and environmental basis.</p> <p>This archive contains genetic variation data derived from genome sequencing of 580 bumblebee samples collected from high-elevation locations in Colorado. The species are Bombus sylvicola (n=214), Bombus balteatus (n=299) and "incognitus" (n=67).</p>
Bumblebees retrieve only the ordinal ranking of foraging options when comparing memories obtained in distinct settings
<p><span>Are animals' preferences determined by absolute memories for options (e.g. reward sizes) or by their remembered ranking (better/worse)? The only studies examining this question suggest humans and starlings utilise memories for both absolute and relative information. We show that bumblebees' learned preferences are based only on memories of ordinal comparisons. A series of experiments showed that after learning to discriminate pairs of different flowers by sucrose concentration, bumblebees preferred flowers (in novel pairings) with 1) higher ranking over equal absolute reward, 2) higher ranking over higher absolute reward, and 3) identical qualitative ranking but different quantitative ranking equally. Bumblebees used absolute information in order to rank different flowers. However, additional experiments revealed that, even when ranking information was absent (i.e. bees learned one flower at a time), memories for absolute information were lost or could no longer be retrieved after at most one hour. Our results illuminate a divergent mechanism for bees (compared to starlings and humans) of learned preferences that may have arisen from different adaptations to their natural environment.</span></p>
Data from: Bumblebees can be exposed to the herbicide glyphosate whilst foraging
<p>Bee declines are attributed to multiple factors, one of which is the use of pesticides. However, there is very little research surround the effects of non-insecticidal pesticides on bees. Herbicides are one of the most applied pesticide groups globally, with glyphosate being one of the most applied pesticides in the world. When herbicides are applied to plants, the plant typically dies a few days later. In the period between herbicide application and plant death it is unknown if bumblebees would choose to forage on the herbicide treated plants, especially if there is uncontaminated healthy forage available. This dataset shows the frequency and duration of bumblebee interactions with glyphosate treated and control plants in a choice test, observing how individual foragers interacted with plants. In a second experiment, data was collected on the availability of nectar and pollen in glyphosate treated plants over a 5-6 day period, to help determine if resources remain available for bees to collect whilst the plant was dying. We observed that bees chose to forage on both glyphosate treated and control plants indiscriminately. We also observed that bees spent significantly less time collecting nectar from each individual flower indicating a potential deterrent effect. We also found that over time, plants had a lower standing crop of nectar after treatment with glyphosate. These results suggest that bees could be exposed to herbicide whilst foraging in the environment.</p>
Data set from: Inferential reasoning in wild bumblebees
<p>The ability to make a decision by excluding alternatives (i.e., inferential reasoning) is a type of logical reasoning that allows organisms to solve problems with incomplete information. Several species of vertebrates have been shown to find hidden food using inferential reasoning abilities. Yet little is known about invertebrates' logical reasoning capabilities. In three Experiments, I examined wild-caught bumblebees' abilities to locate a "rewarded" stimulus using direct information or incomplete information—the latter requiring bees to use inferential reasoning. To do so, I adapted 3 paradigms previously used with primates—the two-cup, three-cup, and double 2-cup tasks. Bumblebees saw either 2 paper strips (Experiment 1), 3 paper strips (Experiment 2), or 2 pairs of paper strips (Experiment 3) and experienced one of them being rewarded or unrewarded. At test, they could choose between 2 (Experiment 1), 3 (Experiment 2), or 4 paper strips (Experiment 3). Bumblebees succeeded in the three tasks and their performance was consistent with inferential reasoning. These findings highlight the importance of comparative studies with invertebrates to comprehensively track the evolution of reasoning abilities, in particular, and cognition, in general.</p>
Data from: The heat is on: reduced detection of floral scents after heat waves in bumblebees
<p>Global climate change disrupts key ecological processes and biotic interactions. The recent increase in heat wave frequency and severity prompts the evaluation of physiological processes that ensure the maintenance of vital ecosystem services such as pollination. We use experimental heat waves to determine how high temperatures affect the bumblebees' ability to detect floral scents. Heat waves induced strong reductions in antennal responses to floral scents in both tested bumblebee species (<em>Bombus terrestris and Bombus pascuorum</em>). These reductions were generally stronger in workers than in males. Bumblebees showed no consistent pattern of recovery 24 hours after heat events. Our results suggest that the projected increased frequency and severity of heat waves may jeopardize bumblebee-mediated pollination services by disrupting the chemical communication between plants and pollinators. The reduced chemosensitivity can decrease the bumblebees' abilities to locate food sources and lead to declines in colonies and populations.</p>
Figure 10 in New distributional records of Bumblebees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) from Bangus Valley in North Kashmir of Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, India
Figure 10. Bangus valley.
Figure 9 in New distributional records of Bumblebees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) from Bangus Valley in North Kashmir of Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, India
Figure 9. Bombus tunicatus (Smith, 1852) ♀.
Figure 8 in New distributional records of Bumblebees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) from Bangus Valley in North Kashmir of Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, India
Figure 8. Bombus simillimus (Smith, 1852) ♀.
Figure 4 in New distributional records of Bumblebees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) from Bangus Valley in North Kashmir of Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, India
Figure 4. Bombus asiaticus (Morawitz, 1875) ♀.
Figure 7 in New distributional records of Bumblebees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) from Bangus Valley in North Kashmir of Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, India
Figure 7. Bombus rufofasciatus (Smith, 1852) ♀.
Figure 3 in New distributional records of Bumblebees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) from Bangus Valley in North Kashmir of Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, India
Figure 3. Bombus albopleuralis (Friese, 1916) ♂.
Thermal flight performance reveals impact of warming on bumblebee foraging potential
<p>The effects of environmental temperature on components of insect flight determine life-history traits, fitness, adaptability, and ultimately, organism ecosystem functional roles. Despite the crucial role of flying insects across landscapes, our understanding of how temperature affects insect flight performance remains limited. Many insect pollinators are considered under threat from climatic warming. Quantifying the relationship between temperature and behavioural performance traits allows us to understand where species are operating in respect to their thermal limits, helping predict responses to projected temperature increases and/or erratic weather events. Using a tethered flight mill, we quantify how flight performance of a widespread bumblebee, <i>Bombus terrestris</i>, varies over a temperature range (12-30<sup>o</sup>C). Given that body mass constrains insect mobility and behaviour, bumblebees represent a useful system to study temperature-mediated size-dependence of flight performance owing to the large intra-colony variation in worker body size they exhibit. Workers struggled to fly over a few hundred metres at the lowest tested temperature of 12<sup>o</sup>C, however flight endurance increased as temperatures rose, peaking around 25<sup>o</sup>C after which it declined. Our findings further revealed variation in flight capacity across the workforce, with larger workers flying further, longer, and faster than their smaller nestmates. Body mass was also positively related with the likelihood of flight, although importantly this relationship became stronger as temperatures cooled, such that at 12<sup>o</sup>C only the largest workers were successful fliers. Our study thus highlights that colony foraging success under variable thermal environments can be dependent on the body mass distribution of constituent workers, and more broadly suggests smaller-bodied insects may benefit disproportionately more from warming than larger-bodied ones in terms of flight performance. By incorporating both flight endurance and likelihood of flight, we calculated a simple metric termed 'temperature-mediated foraging potential' to gain a clearer understanding of how temperature may constrain colony foraging. Of our tested temperatures, 27<sup>o</sup>C supported the highest potential, indicating that for much of the range of this species, higher mean daily temperatures as forecasted under climate warming will push colonies closer to their thermal optimum for flight. Subsequently, warming may have positive implications for bumblebee foraging returns and pollination provision.</p>
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