Chapter 5: Bee Introductions to Pollinate Our Crops

Abstract

<i>Exotic bees have been deliberately introduced into North America since about 1650 when European honey bees were imported for honey and wax production. The first exotic bees exploited for pollination were European bumble bees, introduced into New Zealand in 1875. Subsequently several more species of adventive and deliberately introduced exotic bees have been tested and used to pollinate crops in several countries. The Eurasian alfalfa leafcutting bee</i>, Megachile rotundata <i>(F.), has been a notable success. The African honey bees that were introduced into Brazil in the 1950s had not been carefully tested and selected for gentleness and other desirable traits, with unfortunate consequences. As these bees migrated into North America, the opinion of some people has turned against the introduction of any exotic species of bee, regardless of its gentleness, ease of management, and efficacy as a pollinator of crops. This is part of a general movement against any exotic species, which is irrationally risk-averse because many exotics are beneficial: for example, all of our domestic animals and nearly all of our food plants are exotic species. This popular movement usually and mistakenly equates “exotic” with invasive and noxious. However, most exotic species do not survive in continental North America because they cannot outcompete native species that are adapted to our undisturbed natural habitats. In anthropogenic habitats, invasive exotic and invasive native species may thrive. The controversy about the Eurasian solitary bee</i> Anthophora plumipes <i>(Pallas) is reviewed, as an example of risk-averse opinion and lobbying that have delayed the development of a gentle, manageable, and highly effective pollinator of North American fruit crops</i>.