Pollinators are required for producing 15–30% of the human food supply, and farmers rely on managed honey bees throughout the world to provide these services. Yet honey bees are not always the most efficient pollinators of all crops and are declining in various parts of the world. Crop pollination shortages are becoming increasingly common. We found that behavioral interactions between wild and honey bees increase the pollination efficiency of honey bees on hybrid sunflower up to 5-fold, effectively doubling honey bee pollination services on the average field. These indirect contributions caused by interspecific interactions between wild and honey bees were more than five times more important than the contributions wild bees make to sunflower pollination directly. Both proximity to natural habitat and crop planting practices were significantly correlated with pollination services provided directly and indirectly by wild bees. Our results suggest that conserving wild habitat at the landscape scale and altering selected farm management techniques could increase hybrid sunflower production. These findings also demonstrate the economic importance of interspecific interactions for ecosystem services and suggest that protecting wild bee populations can help buffer the human food supply from honey bee shortages.

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Wild bees enhance honey bees’ pollination of hybrid sunflower

Tracking the movement of insects in their natural habitat is essential for understanding their basic biology, demography, and ethology. A wide variety of markers have been used to assess insect population dynamics, dispersal, territoriality, feeding behavior, trophic-level interactions, and other ecological interactions. The ideal marker should persist without inhibiting the insect's "normal" biology. Furthermore, the marker should be environmentally safe, cost-effective, and easy to use. In this article, we review the current state of knowledge regarding insect marking, document the advantages and limitations of each marking technique, and discuss advances made in marking insects over the past decade.

Methods for Marking Insects: Current Techniques and Future Prospects

East Asia is home to at least 9 indigenous species of honey bee. These bees are extremely valuable because they are key pollinators of about 1/3 of crop species, provide significant income to some of the world's poorest people, and are prey items for some endemic vertebrates. Furthermore, Southeast Asian Dipterocarp forests appear to be adapted to pollination by honey bees. Thus long-term decline in honey bee populations may lead to significant changes in the pollinator ecology of these forests, exacerbating the more direct effects of deforestation and wood harvesting on forest health. Although complete extinction of any honey bee species is seen as unlikely, local extinction is likely to occur across extensive areas. The most significant threats to local honey bee populations are deforestation and excessive hunting pressure. Conservation of East Asian honey bees requires immediate action to determine what rate of colony harvesting by honey hunters is sustainable. This requires information on the demography of hunted populations, particularly the intrinsic growth rates and the rates of harvest.

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Conservation of Asian honey bees

SUMMARYThe repercussions of concurrent foraging by honey bee (Apis mellifera) and non-Apis bee populations on cross-pollination and seed set in hybrid sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) was investigated. The amount of sunflower pollen on the bodies of honey bees foraging in rows of malesterile (MS) sunflowers was positively correlated with the size of the non-Apis bee population. The combined population of non-Apis bees and honey bees foraging on male-fertile (MF) and MS sunflowers also was positively correlated to seed set in MS rows. There were more honey bees than non-Apis bees foraging in MF and MS rows, but there was no evidence of competition for resources between the two populations. The size of the honey bee population was positively correlated to the area of open flowers on sunflower capitula, while the non-Apis population remained relatively constant throughout bloom. Results from this study indicate that a combined honey bee and non-Apis bee population might result in better pollination of hybrid s...

The foraging activity of honey bees Apis mellifera and non—Apis bees on hybrid sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) and its influence on cross—pollination and seed set

Ten self-fertile commercial sunflowers cultivars were evaluated for seed set with and without exposure to bees. In the first planting, the number of foraging honey bees was smaller than in the second, and seed set for most cultivars did not differ between those bagged to exclude bees and ones that were open pollinated. In the second planting, however, a majority of cultivars had significantly greater seed set when capitula were exposed to bees compared with when they were not. The weight of seeds from open-pollinated capitula was greater than from those where bees were excluded. Environmental conditions also played a role in seed set as evidenced by differences between plantings in set on bagged capitula. In the first planting, average maximum and minimum temperatures were significantly higher than in the second, and overall seed set was significantly lower in capitula where bees were excluded compared with the second planting. Under the high temperature conditions, however, some cultivars set four times more seed on open-pollinated capitula compared with those that were bagged. These results suggest that foraging activity and cross-pollination by bees might mitigate reductions in seed set caused by high temperatures.

Effects of Honey Bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae) Foraging on Seed Set in Self-fertile Sunflowers (Helianthus annuus L)

Does a honey bee (Apis mellifera) colony's foraging population on male-fertile sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) affect the amount of pollen on nestmates foraging on male-steriles?

J.H. Martin

Papers

Does a honey bee (Apis mellifera) colony's foraging population on male-fertile sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) affect the amount of pollen on nestmates foraging on male-steriles?