Preface to the Princeton Landmarks in Biology Edition vii Preface xi Symbols Used xiii 1. The Importance of Islands 3 2. Area and Number of Speicies 8 3. Further Explanations of the Area-Diversity Pattern 19 4. The Strategy of Colonization 68 5. Invasibility and the Variable Niche 94 6. Stepping Stones and Biotic Exchange 123 7. Evolutionary Changes Following Colonization 145 8. Prospect 181 Glossary 185 References 193 Index 201

The Theory of Island Biogeography

The extent of our reliance on animal pollination for world crop production for human food has not previously been evaluated and the previous estimates for countries or continents have seldom used primary data. In this review, we expand the previous estimates using novel primary data from 200 countries and found that fruit, vegetable or seed production from 87 of the leading global food crops is dependent upon animal pollination, while 28 crops do not rely upon animal pollination. However, global production volumes give a contrasting perspective, since 60% of global production comes from crops that do not depend on animal pollination, 35% from crops that depend on pollinators, and 5% are unevaluated. Using all crops traded on the world market and setting aside crops that are solely passively self-pollinated, wind-pollinated or parthenocarpic, we then evaluated the level of dependence on animal-mediated pollination for crops that are directly consumed by humans. We found that pollinators are essential for 13 crops, production is highly pollinator dependent for 30, moderately for 27, slightly for 21, unimportant for 7, and is of unknown significance for the remaining 9. We further evaluated whether local and landscape-wide management for natural pollination services could help to sustain crop diversity and production. Case studies for nine crops on four continents revealed that agricultural intensification jeopardizes wild bee communities and their stabilizing effect on pollination services at the landscape scale.

/pdf/importance-of-pollinators-in-changing-landscapes-for-world-2j8o9ygr29.pdf

Importance of pollinators in changing landscapes for world crops

Pollinators are a key component of global biodiversity, providing vital ecosystem services to crops and wild plants. There is clear evidence of recent declines in both wild and domesticated pollinators, and parallel declines in the plants that rely upon them. Here we describe the nature and extent of reported declines, and review the potential drivers of pollinator loss, including habitat loss and fragmentation, agrochemicals, pathogens, alien species, climate change and the interactions between them. Pollinator declines can result in loss of pollination services which have important negative ecological and economic impacts that could significantly affect the maintenance of wild plant diversity, wider ecosystem stability, crop production, food security and human welfare.

/pdf/global-pollinator-declines-trends-impacts-and-drivers-5gfi4zur4k.pdf

Global pollinator declines: trends, impacts and drivers.

Bees are subject to numerous pressures in the modern world. The abundance and diversity of flowers has declined, bees are chronically exposed to cocktails of agrochemicals, and they are simultaneously exposed to novel parasites accidentally spread by humans. Climate change is likely to exacerbate these problems in the future. Stressors do not act in isolation; for example pesticide exposure can impair both detoxification mechanisms and immune responses, rendering bees more susceptible to parasites. It seems certain that chronic exposure to multiple, interacting stressors is driving honey bee colony losses and declines of wild pollinators, but such interactions are not addressed by current regulatory procedures and studying these interactions experimentally poses a major challenge. In the meantime, taking steps to reduce stress on bees would seem prudent; incorporating flower-rich habitat into farmland, reducing pesticide use through adopting more sustainable farming methods, and enforcing effective quarantine measures on bee movements are all practical measures that should be adopted. Effective monitoring of wild pollinator populations is urgently needed to inform management strategies into the future.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/early/2015/02/25/science.1255957.full.pdf

Bee declines driven by combined stress from parasites, pesticides, and lack of flowers

It is clear that the majority of fl owering plants are pollinated by insects and other animals, with a minority utilising abiotic pollen vectors, mainly wind. However there is no accurate published calculation of the proportion of the ca 352 000 species of angiosperms that interact with pollinators. Widely cited fi gures range from 67% to 96% but these have not been based on fi rm data. We estimated the number and proportion of fl owering plants that are pollinated by animals using published and unpublished community-level surveys of plant pollination systems that recorded whether each species present was pollinated by animals or wind. Th e proportion of animal-pollinated species rises from a mean of 78% in temperate-zone communities to 94% in tropical communities. By correcting for the latitudinal diversity trend in fl owering plants, we estimate the global number and proportion of animal pollinated angiosperms as 308 006, which is 87.5% of the estimated species-level diversity of fl owering plants. Given current concerns about the decline in pollinators and the possible resulting impacts on both natural communities and agricultural crops, such estimates are vital to both ecologists and policy makers. Further research is required to assess in detail the absolute dependency of these plants on their pollinators, and how this varies with latitude and community type, but there is no doubt that plant – pollinator interactions play a signifi cant role in maintaining the functional integrity of most terrestrial ecosystems. Plant – pollinator relationships may be one of the most ecologically important classes of animal – plant interaction: without pollinators, many plants could not set seed and reproduce; and without plants to provide pollen, nectar and other rewards, many animal populations would decline, with consequent knock-on eff ects for other species (Kearns et al.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1600-0706.2010.18644.x

How many flowering plants are pollinated by animals

MELITTOLOGY, THE STUDY of the EarthÕs more than 21,000 species of bees, owes much to the collective contributions of twentieth century scholars in the former Soviet Union. Prominent historical Þgures among these are S. I. Malyshev (Genesis of the Hymenoptera and Phases of Their Evolution) andV. V. Popov (The Hymenoptera in Animal World of the USSR). Valuable, sometimes insightful studies have been contributed by that nationÕs mellitologists regarding bee nesting biologies, cleptoparasitism, ßoral associations, bionomics, biogeography, sociality, paleontology, taxonomy,evolution, andanatomy.Only,however, in this decade, with the publication of Radchenko and PeskenkoÕs book are these works exhaustively summarized and synthesized with the rest of the worldÕs literature on bees. My review is based on the 18-page printed English summary and English translations of chapters 7 (“The ÔProto-beeÕ and its Nest”) and 8 (“Evolution of Bee Nesting”) provided by Dr. Radchencko. This book provides a useful scholarly compendium that integratesmany aspects of beenatural history and biology listed above, emphasizing evolutionary frameworks for understanding the daunting diversity of nesting biologies (Part II of the book) and degrees of sociality (Part III) that typify bees today. The extent of the authorsÕ exhaustive review of topics is exempliÞed by their 3 plates of Þgures depicting just egg placement in beesÕ nest cells. They illustrate fully 54 such cases, including placement of the egg atop, beneath, above, and even within the larval provision mass of pollen and nectar. They enumerate hypothesized features possessed by the “proto-bee,” their hypothetical ancestor of todayÕs bees, to include: a solitary rather than social existence; external pollen transport aided by branched body hairs and ßattened metabasitarsi; subterranean, simply branched nests whose earthen cell walls are smoothed and tamped using the pygidial plate, but not varnished with a secretory lining; Þrm, dough-like larval mass-provisions of pollen and nectar; and cocoons spun by mature larvae. Evolution is the thread that the authors have used in their book to stitch together their comparative review and synthesis of the extensive literature of bees that has accumulated over the past several centuries. Although it is clear that they are familiar with the concepts of cladistics, their arguments are primarily narrative, relying on logic and parsimony to winnow possible hypotheses of bee ancestry and origins of characters possessed by various bee taxa today. Although modern phylogeneticists would like to see more rigorous analyses, many of the authorsÕ arguments are persuasive and should serve as excellent foundations for future phylogenetic studies. We can hope that a full English translation of this valuable book will become available, as was capably provided by O. W. Richards for MalyshevÕs seminal book cited at the beginning of this review. Radchenko and Pesenko provide a review of over 1,800 reference citations, but unfortunately for non-readers, the namesof authors of thepublishedworks inRussian are all printed in Cyrillic text. If translated, this book will, I predict, become a valuable resource for mellitologists around the world, as it Þlls a much needed synthesis not found in any other single work of any language.

Biology of Bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea)

this publication provides data about voucher specimens deposited in the museum in conjunction with a research project on pollinators.

/pdf/taxonomic-voucher-specimens-for-study-of-post-wildfire-4mz5hxipnl.pdf

Taxonomic Voucher Specimens for Study of Post-Wildfire Forest Habitat in Douglas County, Oregon

The cavity-nesting solitary bee Osmia bruneri (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae) normally partitions and plugs its nest tunnel with masticated leaf pulp. In 2018, many females of a captive population were observed collecting pulp from drupelets of both unripe and ripe red raspberries (Rubus idaeus) despite available foliage from this plant as well as five weedy forbs. Females capped 122 nests with raspberry pulp, the material that they used for their nests’ cell partitions as well. Such red nest plugs were never produced by the preceding ten captive generations of this bee (about 3000 nests), even when caged with raspberries. Raspberry fruit pulp proved to be of intermediate preference for nest construction among alternative foliar choices offered to nesting females.

/pdf/scientific-note-cavity-nesting-osmia-bruneri-bees-10f0t3v72b.pdf

Scientific note: cavity-nesting Osmia bruneri bees (Megachilidae) can use fruit pulp for nest construction

Abstract In this study, we describe the first reported nest of Bombus morrisoni , a species with an extensive range in the arid Intermountain Region of the Nearctic. The mature, naturally terminated nest consisted of 424 nest cells (cocoons), with 328 non-gyne cells and 94 gyne cells. The nest also had two kinds of understudied structures associated with bumble bee nests: pollen columns and a wax canopy. We found five pollen columns rising amid the cocoons. A 0.3-mm-thick wax canopy spanned over the entire nest. An estimated 40 million pollen grains were incorporated into the 19 g wax canopy, demonstrating that B. morrisoni devotes a significant amount of pollen to this non-dietary purpose. Bombus morrisoni is a species of conservation concern due to an observed reduction in their historic distribution. The data generated in our study contributes to the much-needed comparative accounts of bumble bee nesting biology and has consequential implications in supporting management and conservation decisions. 

/pdf/pollen-columns-and-a-wax-canopy-in-a-first-nest-description-2ui5m1t8.pdf

Pollen columns and a wax canopy in a first nest description of Bombus (Cullumanobombus) morrisoni (Apidae)

Species of biscuitroot (Lomatium: Apiaceae) are endemic to western North America, where multiple species can be common members of perennial wildflower communities from basin sagebrush-steppe and juniper woodlands up to alpine meadows. Despite Lomatium being the largest genus of Apiaceae in North America, little is known about its pollination needs or pollinators. Manual pollinations of the tiny flowers of one species, desert parsley (L. dissectum), showed it to be a self-compatible species, akin to other genera of Apiaceae. Seed production, however, largely requires pollinators to move pollen within and between the andromonoecious umbels. Regional sampling of floral visitors to L. andrusianum, L. dissectum, L. triternatum, and several other species revealed a sometimes abundant and exceptionally rich diversity of mostly Andrena bees. These 21 Andrena species together composed 94% of the individuals methodically sampled at Lomatium plants; this number is at odds with claims of taxonomic promiscuity for pollinator faunas of the Apiaceae. But for several Lomatium specialists, these Andrena species all seem to be floral generalists with apparent pollination value for Lomatium. These ground-nesting bees, as well as their Lomatium hosts, should survive the increasingly frequent and extensive wildfire events burning the sagebrush-steppe and juniper woodlands that they inhabit, owing to their springtime seasonalities and the insulative protection of overlying soil.

https://bioone.org/journals/western-north-american-naturalist/volume-80/issue-1/064.080.0101/Self-Compatibility-in-Lomatium-dissectum-Apiaceae-and-the-Diverse-Andrena/10.3398/064.080.0101.pdf

James H. Cane

Papers

Biology of Bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea)

Taxonomic Voucher Specimens for Study of Post-Wildfire Forest Habitat in Douglas County, Oregon

Scientific note: cavity-nesting Osmia bruneri bees (Megachilidae) can use fruit pulp for nest construction

Pollen columns and a wax canopy in a first nest description of Bombus (Cullumanobombus) morrisoni (Apidae)

Self-compatibility in Lomatium dissectum (Apiaceae) and the diverse Andrena bees that dominate regional Lomatium pollinator faunas