Article
Biology
Achik Dorchin, Anat Shafir, Frank H. Neumann, Dafna Langgut, Nicolas J. Vereecken, Itay Mayrose
Summary: This study investigates how floral host preference influences the diversification of eucerine bees. The results show that multiple evolutionary transitions from host plants with accessible pollen to restricted pollen from 'bee-flowers' have significantly increased the diversification of a bee clade.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Plant Sciences
Tamiris Delgado, Laura Carolina Leal, Juliana Hanna Leite El Ottra, Vinicius Lourenco Garcia Brito, Anselmo Nogueira
Summary: Flower size is important for attracting pollinators, especially bees. Flowers with poricidal anthers use mechanical vibrations from bees to release pollen. Large-flowered species are visited by more diverse species of bees than small-flowered species, and the most frequent bee visitors to large flowers are larger in size and exhibit vibrating behavior.
Article
Entomology
Charlotte Descamps, Anne Jambrek, Muriel Quinet, Anne-Laure Jacquemart
Summary: In the context of climate warming, alterations in plant pollination and reproductive success due to increased air temperatures constitute a significant issue. Higher temperatures negatively affect floral traits and rewards, leading to reduced flower visitation by pollinators, which could in turn decrease plant pollination rates and reproductive success under global temperature increases caused by climate change.
Article
Plant Sciences
Isabella G. S. Visschers, Mirka Macel, Janny L. L. Peters, Lidiya Sergeeva, Jan Bruin, Nicole M. M. van Dam
Summary: Capsicum plants should be evaluated for resistance to thrips on both leaves and flowers, as they represent different aspects of resistance. In our experiments, certain accessions showed a preference for thrips feeding on flowers. Leaf-based resistance was found to be correlated with reduced thrips population development on whole plants.
Article
Plant Sciences
L. B. Valadao-Mendes, I Rocha, D. A. L. Meireles, F. B. Leite, M. Sazima, P. K. Maruyama, V. L. G. Brito
Summary: The study found that stamen dimorphic plant species typically have larger flowers and less variable style shapes, as well as a higher richness of visiting bees. This suggests that stamen dimorphism is associated with ecological generalization in plant-pollinator interactions at the community scale.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Carolin Friedle, Klaus Wallner, Peter Rosenkranz, Dieter Martens, Walter Vetter
Summary: Research conducted in a fruit-growing area in Southern Germany found that almost 90% of daily pollen samples analyzed featured between one and thirteen different pesticides, with maximum concentrations reaching up to 4500 ng/g. Maximum residual concentrations of pesticides were observed mainly in April, the first half of May, and the second half of June. Data showed a pattern of pesticide residuals peaking for approximately 10 subsequent days with two or three maximum values.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH
(2021)
Article
Entomology
Justin C. Roch, Rosemary Malfi, Jennifer Van Wyk, Deicy Carolina Munoz Agudelo, Joan Milam, Lynn S. Adler
Summary: Foraging preferences of bee taxa differ, especially between male and female bees of the same species. Bees may also prefer a specific flower sex that provides pollen. This study analyzed bee communities visiting sunflowers and found that females were more abundant than males, especially on pollen-fertile cultivars. Additionally, pollen presence predicted the sex of bees, and the bee community varied significantly between pollen-fertile and pollen-sterile cultivars.
ENVIRONMENTAL ENTOMOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Michael P. Simanonok, Clint R. V. Otto, R. Scott Cornman, Deborah D. Iwanowicz, James P. Strange, Tamara A. Smith
Summary: Research conducted on DNA sequences of pollen from historical specimens of the rusty patched bumble bee showed that there were no temporal changes in the bee's forage, suggesting that the decline of the species was likely not driven by limitations of specific floral species in terms of space or time.
BIODIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION
(2021)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Busra Bildir, Duygu Nur Cobanoglu, Bulent Kaya
Summary: Nanoparticles have gained significant attention due to their unique characteristics and numerous potential applications. One area of interest is the synthesis of nanoparticles using natural sources like bee pollen. This research evaluated the usability of bee pollen extract-based magnesium nanoparticles (MgNPs). The study involved characterizing the nanoparticles and assessing their antioxidant, antimicrobial, and neurotoxic properties.
CHEMISTRY & BIODIVERSITY
(2023)
Article
Entomology
Kimberly A. Stoner, Andrea Nurse, Robert W. Koethe, Maxwell S. Hatala, David M. Lehmann
Summary: This study investigated the contribution of ornamental nursery plants to honey bee pollen sources. The results showed that plant genera grown in nurseries, such as Rosa, Rhus, and Ilex, contributed significantly to pollen volume during weeks 23-27 of the year. Among the genera not grown in nurseries, Toxicodendron was also important during weeks 23 and 24, and Trifolium was important throughout the season.
Article
Biology
Alexander Keller, Quinn S. McFrederick, Prarthana Dharampal, Shawn Steffan, Bryan N. Danforth, Sara D. Leonhardt
Summary: Growing evidence suggests a strong overlap between microbiomes of flowers and bees, indicating flowers as hubs of microbial transmission. The role of floral transmission in bee microbiome assembly and the functional importance of florally sourced microbes in shaping bee foraging decisions remain intriguing. Interaction network properties and microbial filtering by plant and bee hosts can predict potential transmission routes between hosts. Shared floral microbes can benefit bees in various ways, from enhancing nutritional quality to altering the attractiveness of floral resources, potentially affecting the structure of the flower-bee interaction network.
CURRENT OPINION IN INSECT SCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Entomology
Vesna Gagic, Lindsey Kirkland, Liam K. Kendall, Jeremy Jones, Jeffrey Kirkland, Cameron Spurr, Romina Rader
Summary: The study found that substantial pollen limitation occurs when honeybees are alone, as they prefer to visit hermaphrodite flowers and do not transition well to female flowers. Additionally, seed set is lower when blowflies are present alongside honeybees.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Edita Ritmejeryte, Berin A. Boughton, Michael J. Bayly, Rebecca E. Miller
Summary: Floral chemical defence strategies have been insufficiently studied, despite their importance to plant fitness. This study investigated the allocation of cyanogenic glycosides (CNglycs) within flowers and found extremely high CNglyc content in floral tissues of certain species, as well as diverse and specific within-flower distributions. The study also identified four patterns of within-flower CNglyc allocation and demonstrated the importance of visualizing metabolite localization.
Article
Ecology
Jorge Arturo Lobo
Summary: Temporal changes in the composition and abundance of floral visitors during floral anthesis affect the deposition and germination of pollen, as well as the removal of pollen. This study in Costa Rica focused on the foraging behavior of different bee species in squash crops, revealing changes in visitor composition during anthesis and rapid pollen loss and deposition in the early hours. The dominance of stingless bees in the later hours suggests a displacement of other bees, despite continuous nectar flow.
ARTHROPOD-PLANT INTERACTIONS
(2021)
Article
Plant Sciences
Charlotte Descamps, Muriel Quinet, Anne-Laure Jacquemart
Summary: The study found that elevated temperatures and water stress have significant impacts on the floral resources of the bee-pollinated species Borago officinalis, including reductions in nectar volume and total nectar sugars produced per flower, as well as decreases in pollen weight per flower and increases in pollen polypeptide concentration. Both temperature rise and water stress also led to an increase in total amino acid concentration and essential amino acid percentage in nectar, while the relative percentage of different amino acids in both pollen and nectar were modified under stresses. These modifications may have implications for plant-pollinator interactions, plant pollination success, and insect nutritional needs.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2021)