Bee Pollination Research Articles

Unveiling the secret pollinators: A deep dive into moringas' pollination ecology

A famous vegetable crop in India that is rich in nutrients and heavily dependent on bees for pollination is moringa. A survey was taken in the Karur and Perambalur districts of Tamil Nadu to document the diversity of pollinators and insect visitors of moringa. The observations were analyzed using diversity indices. According to the studies, 13 hymenopteran, 7 dipteran, and 7 lepidopteran insects visited moringa plants. Fruit set and quality are maximized in moringa when pollination is successful. Therefore, four treatments have been applied to the Asiatic hive bee, Apis cerana indica, to explore the pollination capability and the foraging ecology of other key bee pollinators of moringa. The results affirmed that the significant Apis pollinators spend more time on nectar collection than pollen gathering. The peak foraging activity of Apis pollinators happened in the morning hours during 0900 -1100h. A. cerana indica and A. dorsata commence their foraging activity much earlier in the morning than A. florea. The foraging activity gradually declined after 1400h. The abundance of A. cerana indica was very high in managed bee pollination plots compared to open pollination plots. The managed bee pollination plots (128.2 fruits/tree) recorded 19.14 percent more fruit sets and 11.40 % more fruit yield than open pollination plots (107.6 fruits/tree) by deploying four Asian bee colonies per acre of moringa crop.

Wild Bee Assemblages and Pollination Networks of Managed Emergent Wetlands in Central New York, USA.

To effectively protect wild bee pollinators and the services they provide, it is critical to gather data on their distributions, life histories, and interactions with plants among a diversity of habitat types. Wetlands are underrepresented in bee surveys, despite having a great diversity of flowering plants and known importance to hundreds of species of wildlife. In this 2-year survey of a restored wetland complex in Central New York, over 9000 bees were collected, representing ≥ 109 species in 25 genera. We recorded 337 unique plant-pollinator associations, including those previously undocumented for the wetland obligate masked bee, Hylaeus nelumbonis (Robertson). Floral resources and bee genera were most diverse in August, and network analyses indicated September networks were the most connected, nested, and least modular. Floral resources also shifted towards being more native over the course of the season. Results show that emergent wetlands support diverse guilds of pollinators in the latter half of the growing season, and that wetland management can produce diverse conditions conducive to wild bee habitat.

Low Abundance of Regular Pollinators and Indirect Competitive Effects of Dominant Small Bees Negatively Affect Passion Fruit Pollination in Smallholder Croplands.

Land-use changes have led to natural habitat loss and fragmentation, favoring the occurrence of dominant bee species in agroecosystems. This has raised concerns on the dominance effects in pollination-dependent crops like passion fruits (Passiflora edulis Sims) in tropical regions. That is because dominant bee species might overlap their foraging time with regular pollinators, potentially impairing crop yield. Our aim was to understand how dominant small bees affect regular pollinators of passion fruit flowers and its implications on crop production for smallholder farmers. We sampled bees on farms cropping yellow passion fruits in the Cerrado, the Brazilian savanna, and established pollination exclusion experiments to evaluate the interacting effects of dominance and bee community composition on crop yield. We observed a low frequency of regular pollinators, while dominant floral visitors were highly abundant. Dominant pollinators highly overlapped their foraging activity with regular pollinators through time. Contrary to our expectations, the dominance of native and non-native bee species did not directly affect the occurrence of regular pollinators nor crop yield. However, we found evidence that exploitative competition may indirectly affect pollination by regular pollinators. Manual and bee pollination combined increased fruit quality, highlighting the potential benefits of diverse pollinator communities for sustainable crop production. Our findings emphasize the need for strategies that can improve the quality and abundance of resources in agroecosystems for regular native pollinators to optimize pollination in passion fruits on smallholder farms and reduce dominance effects caused by small floral-visiting bees.

Female-biased nectar production is associated with the Darwin's inflorescence syndrome.

Plant reproduction is influenced not only by individual flower characteristics but also by the arrangement of flowers within inflorescences. In bee-pollinated plants with protandrous flowers in vertical acropetal inflorescences - where male fertile flower structures mature before female ones and basal flowers open first (i.e., Darwin's inflorescence configuration) - male-phase flowers are positioned above female-phase flowers. This arrangement benefits from the upward foraging motion of bees, reducing pollen transfer between flowers of the same plant and increasing pollen export. Additionally, female-biased nectar production in these species could reinforce upward bee movement, further reducing self-pollen transfer. We conducted a comparative study of 112 hermaphrodite angiosperm species with temporal separation of male and female reproductive functions (i.e., dichogamy) to explore whether female-biased nectar production is common among bee-pollinated species with Darwin's inflorescence configuration. Our results revealed female-biased nectar production in bee-pollinated species with Darwin's inflorescence configuration. In the absence of bee pollination, species with this type of inflorescence exhibit male-biased nectar production. Gender-biased nectar production is absent in species lacking this inflorescence type. Female-biased nectar production in vertical acropetal inflorescences with protandrous flowers likely evolved independently in different bee-pollinated species to enhance pollen export. Our study emphasizes the need for microevolutionary research on how nectar production patterns adapt to bee pollination in species with Darwin's inflorescence configuration.It also calls for investigation into the developmental biases influencing nectar production in plants with dichogamous flowers.

Effect of stingless bee (Tetragonula iridipennis) pollination on onion seed yield in Rabi and Kharif seasons

The present study on stingless bee was carried out during Rabi and Kharif of 2022-2023 in farmers field at Oddanchatram, Dindigul district of Tamil Nadu to evaluate their efficiency in pollinating onion, cultivated for seed purpose. Two fields (10 km apart) were used, one with stingless bees (2 colonies/acre) and one without. Foraging activity was monitored every 4 days over 36 days and onion seed yield and germination were compared between open pollination and covered umbels. During Rabi, peak foraging activity occurred from 1100 to 1200 h with 23.6 outgoing bees/5min/h. Pollen and nectar foragers peaked between 1200 and 0100 h with means of 6.5 and 20.1 bees/5min/h, while resin foragers showed peaks at 1200-0100 and 0500-0600 h. Managed pollination yielded 165 kg/acre with 88% germination compared to 120 kg/acre and 77% without bees. In Kharif, similar peaks were observed, with pollen, nectar and resin foragers averaging 4.3, 19.4 and 2.0 bees/5min/h, respectively. Seed yield was 150 kg/acre with stingless bee pollination versus 110 kg/acre without bees, with germination rates of 86% and 74%. Stingless bee pollination improved onion seed yield by 37.5% in Rabi and 36% in Kharif, demonstrating their significant role in boosting crop productivity. Future studies should explore the long-term impacts of stingless bee pollination on crop yields and biodiversity.

Biotechnological Approach for Development and Characterization of Protein Feed for Melipona quadrifasciata

Stingless bees are vital pollinators in tropical and neotropical regions, emphasizing the need to conserve these species. However, resource scarcity, particularly pollen, during certain periods negatively impacts bee health and pollination efficiency. To address this, we developed a fermented protein feed using microorganisms from pollen of Melipona quadrifasciata, a species commonly found in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. The fermented feed consisted of a protein bran mixture, sugar syrup, and an inoculant derived from species’ fermented pollen. To assess the feed quality, nutritional evaluation and metabolomic analyses were conducted (UHPLC/DAD-HRMS/MS and GC-MS). The metabolomic analysis identified 85 compounds in positive and 102 in negative ionization modes. Shared metabolites, such as isoquercetin and palatinose, highlighted similarities between the feed and natural fermented pollen. Laboratory tests with caged bees showed comparable consumption between the feed and fermented pollen with no statistical difference (mean: 0.067 g vs. 0.060 g; p = 0.53). The feed exhibited a favorable pH transition (5.30 pre-fermentation to 4.41 after the fermentation process) and remained stable for six months at ±2 °C. These findings demonstrate a biotechnological advance in stingless bee nutrition, offering a viable solution during resource scarcity and promoting the health of M. quadrifasciata.

Evaluation of a Simple Antibiotic-Free Cryopreservation Protocol for Drone Semen.

The increasing reliance of modern agriculture on honey bee (Apis mellifera) pollination has driven efforts to preserve and enhance bee populations. The cryopreservation of drone semen presents a promising solution for preserving genetic diversity and supporting breeding programs without live animal transport risks. This study aimed to evaluate a one-step dilution antibiotic-free drone semen slow-freezing protocol under field conditions with in vitro and in vivo parameters. Semen viability was tested by two different mixes of dyes, and both techniques gave similar results, showing a post-thaw viability drop of 37%. Virgin queens were inseminated either with fresh or frozen-thawed semen. Survival rates until egg-laying onset and female brood production were similar for both groups; however, colonies with queens inseminated with fresh semen were more likely to go into wintering. Results suggest that frozen-thawed semen can support viable queen insemination, with potential for female brood production even without antibiotics in the diluent. This study highlights the need for further refinement of cryopreservation protocols, particularly regarding semen quality and queen longevity, to improve the feasibility of cryobanking for Apis mellifera conservation and breeding.

Effects of flowering period on floral traits, pollinator behavior and seed production of David’s mountain laurel (Sophora davidii)

ABSTRACT Sophora davidii is a cross-pollinated plant with important ecological protection and medicinal value in China, but its seed yield is low due to backward and nonstandard production technology. Therefore, we divide the flowering period of Sophora davidii into initial, full and final flowering period, measuring the floral morphology, pollen viability, stigma receptivity, nectar volume and nectar concentration, foraging behavior of pollinators, fertilization physiology, seed yield and quality through field observation and indoor testing to explore whether the flowering period affects the floral traits, pollinator behavior and seed production of plants. Our results revealed that the nectar volume, nectar concentration, pollen viability and stigma receptivity at full flowering period were the highest. The single visit time and visit time per flower of Chinese honey bees were the longest in the full flowering period, while the number of transfer, visit frequency and number of touching stigma were the least. The visiting number of the bees was the most and the most active in the full flowering period. The bees pollination not only improved the pollen amount, germination rate, pollen tube length and the ovule number of S. davidii, but also their effect was the most obvious in full flowering period. The principal component analysis showed that pollination by Chinese honey bees during the whole flowering period of S. davidii was the best way to produce seeds. We can conclude that flowering period affects flower traits, foraging behavior of pollinators, seed yield and quality of S. davidii.

Effect of insect pollinators on quantitative yield parameters of okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) in mid-Himalayan region

Okra [Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moench] is an often cross-pollinated crop with up to 19–42% of cross pollination assisted by insects and planned pollination may improve the economic fruit yield and biological parameters. The present study was carried out during rainy (kharif) seasons of 2021 and 2022 at Research Farm of ICAR-Vivekananda Parvatiya Krishi Anusandhan Sansthan, Hawalbagh, Almora, Uttarakhand to assess the pollinator diversity and possible results (both biological and economical) of planned bee pollination. The study on floral visitors of okra recorded 28 insect spp. belonging to four insect orders, among which five spp., viz. Apis cerana indica (Fabricius) 1798, Apis mellifera (Linnaeus) 1758, Bombus haemorrhoidalis (Smith) 1852, Lithurgus atratus (Smith) 1853 and Xylocopa latipes (Drury) 1773 were predominant. The foraging activity and pollination behaviour showed that two non-Apis bee species (X. latipes and B. haemorrhoidalis) were swift flyers and visited more numbers of flowers per unit time. It was noticed that, peak period of pollinator’s visitation was between 9.00–11.00 h accounting to 113.76±7.65 insects/m2/10 min, during which stigma receptivity and pollen germination were at its peak. Assessment of yield related parameters of insect pollinated flowers showed superior quality fruits with better capsule length (17.4–20.9 cm), capsule girth (6.56–7.84 cm), seeds/capsule (51.4–60.6), test weight of 100-seeds (7.05–8.38 g) and even the seed yield (1.86–3.04 tonnes/hectare) than closed control and hand pollination (emasculated and cross pollinated). In conclusion, ecological engineering of okra fields enhances the pollination rate and ultimately the yield and seed quality.

Multitrophic assembly influences β‐diversity across a tripartite system of flowering plants, bees, and bee‐gut microbiomes

Theoretical frameworks of terrestrial community assembly often focus on single trophic levels (e.g. plants) without considering how complex interdependencies across different trophic levels influence assembly mechanisms. Yet, when multiple trophic levels are considered (e.g. plant–pollinator, plant–microbe interactions) the focus is typically on network analyses at local spatial scales. As spatial variation in biodiversity (β‐diversity) is increasingly being recognized for its relevance in understanding community assembly and conservation, considering how β‐diversity at one trophic level may be influenced by assembly processes that alter abundance and composition of interacting communities at a different trophic level (multitrophic dependency) is critical. Here, we build on single trophic level community assembly frameworks to explore the assembly processes affecting β‐diversity in multitrophic communities comprising flowering plants, their bee pollinators, and the corresponding bee‐gut microbiota to better understand the importance of multitrophic dependency in community assembly. Using distance‐based redundancy analysis and variation partitioning, we investigated community assembly processes across three interconnected trophic levels in two ecological regions in southern California: the Santa Monica Mountains and three islands of the Channel Island Archipelago. We found that the deterministic effects of multitrophic dependency are stronger on directly connected trophic levels than on indirectly connected trophic levels (i.e. flowers explain bee communities and bees explain bee‐gut bacteria communities, but flowers weakly explain variation in bee‐gut bacteria communities). We also found notable regional variation, where multitrophic dependency was weaker on the Channel Islands as ecological drift was more pronounced. Our results suggest that integrating the influence of multitrophic dependency on community assembly is important for elucidating drivers of β‐diversity and that multitrophic dependency can be determined by the regional context in which β‐diversity is measured. Taken together, our results highlight the importance of considering multiscale perspectives – both multitrophic and multiregional – in community assembly to fully elucidate assembly processes.

A modified petal and stamen dimorphism interact to enhance pollen placement by a buzz-pollinated flower.

Floral adaptations supposedly favour pollen grains to cross the numerous barriers faced during their journey to stigmas. Stamen dimorphism and specialized petals, like the cucculus in the Cassieae tribe (Fabaceae), are commonly observed in flowers that offer only pollen as a resource for bee pollinators. Here, we experimentally investigated whether the stamen dimorphism and cucculus enhance pollen placement on the bee's body. We used 3D-printed bee models to apply artificial vibrations on the flowers of Chamaechrista latistipula with their cucculus deflected or maintained in its original position and their anther pores manipulated. After each simulated flower visit, we captured photographs of the artificial bee from four distinct angles. Employing digital imaging techniques, we documented the presence and location of pollen and stigma on the bee's body. Our findings reveal that the cucculus redistributes pollen grains on the bee's body. There is a remarkable increase in pollen density (approximately tenfold) on the lateral side adjacent to the cucculus, precisely where the stigma contacts the bee when the cucculus is unmanipulated. Furthermore, the cucculus also enhances pollen placement on the ventral region of the bee, indicating its additional function. The cucculus also increases the accuracy of pollen grains on the adjacent lateral region of the bee's body, irrespective of the pollen grains released by small or large anthers. Floral specialized traits, such as modified petals and stamen dimorphism, can modify the fate of pollen grains and ultimately contribute to the male reproductive performance in pollen flowers with poricidal anthers. The cucculus exhibits a dual role by promoting pollen placement in optimal regions for pollination and probably supporting pollen grains for bee feeding. These findings provide valuable insights into the adaptive significance of floral traits and their impact on the reproductive success of pollen flowers.

Do Larger Pollinators Have Higher Pollination Efficiency for the Generalized Pollination Plant Hibiscus mutabilis?

To understand the reproductive strategies of the typically introduced plant Hibiscus mutabilis and to compare the pollination efficiency of its different pollinators, we observed, measured, and recorded the flowering dynamics, floral traits, and visiting insects of H. mutabilis. Furthermore, we compared the body size, visitation rate, and pollination efficiency of the pollination insects of H. mutabilis. The results indicated that, despite exhibiting specialized moth pollination characteristics based on similarities in flower features to other moth-pollinated species, H. mutabilis actually presented a generalized pollination system. The nectar of H. mutabilis attracted a variety of insects to provide pollination services, a total of five flower visitors, one moth species (Macroglossum pyrrhosticta), and four bee species (Xylocopa appendiculata, Xylocopa dissimilis, Bombus breviceps, and Apis mellifera), were found to provide pollination services for H. mutabilis. The pollination efficiency of these pollinators was related to the parts of their body in contact with the stamens and stigmas of flowers. Although M. pyrrhosticta was larger in size and its visitation frequency in our field observations was higher, its pollination efficiency was lower. This was due to the small part of its body (proboscis) contacting the two sexual organs of H. mutabilis while visiting flowers, resulting in a low amount of pollen being transferred and deposited. In contrast, the bee pollinators' proboscis was significantly shorter than that of M. pyrrhosticta, and it must enter the flower to suck the nectar that is hidden deeply inside the base of the flower. Therefore, the body parts of bee pollinators in contact with the two sexual organs of H. mutabilis were larger than M. pyrrhosticta in the process of visiting flowers, and the pollination efficiencies were significantly higher than those of M. pyrrhosticta. In addition, larger bee pollinators have higher pollination efficiency. As a result, H. mutabilis suffered from pollen limitation due to the pollination efficiencies of the moth pollinators in the introduced habitats, but it compensated by attracting more species of bee pollinators.

Forecasting the Effects of Global Change on a Bee Biodiversity Hotspot.

The Mojave and Sonoran Deserts, recognized as a global hotspot for bee biodiversity, are experiencing habitat degradation from urbanization, utility-scale solar energy (USSE) development, and climate change. In this study, we evaluated the current and future distribution of bee diversity, assessed how protected areas safeguard bee species richness, and predicted how global change may affect bees across the region. Using Joint Species Distribution Models (JSDMs) of 148 bee species, we project changes in species distributions, occurrence area, and richness under four global change scenarios between 1971 and 2050. We evaluated the threat posed by USSE development and predicted how climate change will affect the suitability of protected areas for conservation. Our findings indicate that changes in temperature and precipitation do not uniformly affect bee richness. Lower elevation protected areas are projected to experience mean losses of up to 5.8 species, whereas protected areas at higher elevations and transition zones may gain up to 7.8 species. Areas prioritized for future USSE development have an average species richness of 4.2 species higher than the study area average, and lower priority "variance" areas have 8.2 more species. USSE zones are expected to experience declines of up to 8.0 species by 2050 due to climate change alone. Despite the importance of solitary bees for pollination, their diversity is often overlooked in land management decisions. Our results show the utility of JSDMs for leveraging existing collection records to ease the inclusion of data-limited insect species in land management decision-making.

Dominant species stabilize pollination services through response diversity, but not cross-scale redundancy.

Substantial evidence suggests that biodiversity can stabilize ecosystem function, but how it does this is less clear. In very general terms, the hypothesis is that biodiversity stabilizes function because having more species increases the role of compensatory dynamics, which occur when species in a community show different responses to the environment. Here, we focus on two forms of compensatory dynamics, cross-scale redundancy (CSR) and response diversity (RD). CSR occurs when species respond to a disturbance at different scales such that scale-specific disturbances do not negatively affect all species. RD occurs when species contributing to the same function show different responses to an environmental change. We developed a new analytical approach that can compare the strength of CSR and RD in the same dataset and used it to study native bee pollination of blueberry at 16 farms that varied in surrounding agricultural land use. We then asked whether CSR and RD among bee species are associated with the stability of blueberry pollination. Although CSR and RD were both present, only RD was associated with higher stability of pollination. Furthermore, the effects of RD on stability were due to a single widespread species, Andrena bradleyi, that is a specialist on blueberry and, unlike other bee species, was highly abundant at farms surrounded by intensive blueberry agriculture. Thus, the stabilizing effect we observed was attributable to an "identity effect" more than to species richness per se. Our results demonstrate how CSR and RD can be empirically measured and compared and highlight how the theoretical expectations of the biodiversity-ecosystem functioning field are not always upheld when confronted with real-world data.

Simulation of early season herbivory via mechanical damage affects flower production in pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo ssp. pepo).

Damage from insect herbivores can elicit a wide range of plant responses, including reduced or compensatory growth, altered volatile profiles, or increased production of defence compounds. Specifically, herbivory can alter floral development as plants reallocate resources towards defence and regrowth functions. For pollinator-dependent species, floral quantity and quality are critical for attracting floral visitors; thus, herbivore-induced developmental effects that alter either floral abundance or attractiveness may have critical implications for plant reproductive success. Based on past work on resource trade-offs, we hypothesize that herbivore damage-induced effects are stronger in structural floral traits that require significant resource investment (e.g. flower quantity), as plants reallocate resources towards defence and regrowth, and weaker in secondary floral traits that require less structural investment (e.g. nectar rewards). In this study, we simulated early-season herbivore mechanical damage in the domesticated jack-o-lantern pumpkin Cucurbita pepo ssp. pepo and measured a diverse suite of floral traits over a 60-d greenhouse experiment. We found that mechanical damage delayed the onset of male anthesis and reduced the total quantity of flowers produced. Additionally, permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) indicated that mechanical damage significantly impacts overall floral volatile profile, though not output of sesquiterpenoids, a class of compounds known to recruit specialized cucumber beetle herbivores and squash bee pollinators. We show that C. pepo spp. pepo reduces investment in male flower production following mechanical damage, and that floral volatiles do exhibit shifts in production, indicative of damage-induced trait plasticity. Such reductions in male flower production could reduce the relative attractiveness of damaged plants to foraging pollinators in this globally relevant cultivated species.

Strategic honey bee hive placement improves honey bee visitation but not pollination in northern highbush blueberry.

Commercial blueberry Vaccinium spp. (Ericales: Ericaceae) production relies on insect-mediated pollination. Pollination is mostly provided by rented honey bees, Apis mellifera L. (Hymenoptera: Apidae), but blueberry crop yields can be limited due to pollination deficits. Various hive placement strategies have been recommended to mitigate pollination shortfalls, but the effect of hive placement has received limited formal investigation. This study explores the effects of clumped and dispersed hive placement strategies on honey bee visitation and pollination outcomes in "Bluecrop" and "Duke" fields over 2 years (2021 and 2022) within 2 economically important regions of production in the United States-the Midwest (Michigan) and Pacific Northwest (Oregon and Washington). Clumping hives consistently increased honey bee visitation rate but did not result in higher fruit set, fruit weight, or seed count. Increases in honey bee visitation through clumping could perhaps improve pollination outcomes in more pollination-limited blueberry cultivars and other pollination-dependent crops. Clumping hives is substantially more efficient and cost-effective for beekeepers due to fewer drop locations and could lead to cost savings for both beekeepers and blueberry growers without growers sacrificing pollination levels and crop yields.

Native bee Pollination Ecosystem Services in Agricultural Wetlands and Riparian Protected Lands

Many freshwater wetlands and riparian systems are protected within agricultural landscapes. Yet, pollinator ecosystem services are seldom considered key ecosystem services provided by these conservation easements. The purpose of this study is to explore the extent of protected aquatic lands to provide pollination ecosystem services by assessing pollinator abundances, crop yield changes, and value estimations of increased soybean yields from a subset of common native solitary bees. We created a novel geodatabase of United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) conservation easements and used this database in the InVEST crop pollination model to model wild solitary bee pollination. We then estimated the monetary value of yield increases provided by pollinators. We found that wetland uplands provided the greatest potential for pollination services for ground nesting bees, followed by herbaceous and forested riparian respectively. Stem nesters preferred forested riparian, then upland habitats. In soybeans fields, we found wild pollinators can provide up to 5.5% yield response from current private aquatic conservation lands. The current landscape is not optimized to use wetlands and riparian conservation lands as pollinator habitat, but these results suggest protected aquatic lands can sustainably increase wild pollination services to agricultural crops if landscapes are managed, protected, and optimized with pollinator services as co-benefit.

Moths versus Bees: Contrasts in Habitat Preferences Across Barrens of the Northeastern USA.

Bees and moths are globally important pollinators. Xeric barrens in the largely mesic northeastern USA support high levels of pollinator diversity, including rare bees and moths. We investigated the response of bee vs. moth communities to abiotic and vegetation drivers in barrens across the region. We sampled local environmental conditions, vegetation, bees, and moths for 2-4 years in 19 preserves. Employing random forest analysis, we tested the role of 29 abiotic and vegetation predictors of bee vs. moth abundance, species richness, Shannon-Wiener Index, evenness, and species composition. Variables related to climate, canopy cover, and soils were the most important predictors of abundance, diversity, and species composition for both bees and moths. Vegetation variables, such as species richness of shrubs and hostplants, were also important for bees. The direction of these relationships contrasted sharply between bees and moths: bees were more abundant and species rich in more open, sandy sites and moths the opposite. Habitat preferences for a subset of moth xeric specialists were much more similar to bees than to other moths, with a preference for open, sandy conditions. Contrasts between bees and moths in habitat preferences likely stemmed from differences in their life histories: bees rely on flowers for feeding and porous substrates for nesting, whereas most moth adults feed on flowers, but many moth caterpillars use woody plants as hosts. In sharp contrast to the results for abundance and richness, bees and moths responded similarly for the Shannon-Wiener Index, which raises important general questions about the conservation value of these two metrics. Our results suggest that, because of differences in habitat preferences among pollinators, barrens management for both open and more closed habitats is likely to promote the highest abundance and diversity of local bee and moth pollinator communities jointly.

Bee pollination and bee decline: A study about university students' Knowledge and its educational implication.

Science education plays a crucial role in addressing the pollinator crisis by enhancing knowledge and fostering changes in attitudes toward this environmental challenge. Previous research has been focused on validating a specific instrument related to this subject, although its use for assessing students' knowledge has been little explored. In the present study, we have evaluated the level of awareness regarding the significance of bees as primary pollinators among students of various disciplines at the Universities of Sevilla, in Spain, and Ouro Preto, in Brazil, emphasizing the importance of the plant-bee interaction. 753 students from the fields of biology, agriculture, and education were invited to complete a questionnaire focused on bee biology. The results indicate that knowledge on the subject is closely linked to professional career choice and that the training program for the future teachers effectively increased comprehension of the crucial role played by bees as main supporters of the ecosystem service of pollination.

Knowledge, attitude, and perceptions of farmers in the Maranhão Amazon regarding the ecological importance of bees

Bees perform an essential pollination service on more than half of all plants worldwide. However, a global decline in bee and other pollinator populations due to anthropic activities threatens these services. Understanding the interactions between farmers and bees is essential for developing policies to protect pollinators. This study sought to investigate and document the knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of farmers in the Maranhão Amazon in Brazil regarding the relevance and function of bees. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 567 farmers from 54 rural communities, located in six counties. The results showed that participating farmers understood the importance of bees, acknowledging the pollination of plants and honey production as their primary functions. Farmers also observed that bee populations have reduced over the years and cited anthropic actions (deforestation, slash-and-burn agriculture, and pesticide use) as the most impacting elements. Although farmers recognized the ecological functions of bees, none were willing to implement any novel practices on their properties to preserve bee populations. Our results identified a need to stimulate the implementation of activities that safeguard bees, for instance via projects that train local farmers and encourage them to contribute to bee preservation, implement sustainable agricultural practices, and reduce pesticide use. Such projects can assist farmers in the recovery and reforestation of degraded areas in the region.