Bees feed on nectar and pollen, however these resources are often available to floral visitors during restricted temporal windows. The presence of memory is an advantage, as foragers can save energy by scheduling their flight activity coincide with peaks secretion in the flowers or at times higher sugar concentration nectar. Thus, objectives this study were (i) investigate whether Melipona subn...

Knowledge about floral resources is essential for bee management and conservation. Pollen analysis of honey the most traditional method determining nectar a species. However, collection samples difficult in cavity-nesting natural stingless colonies. Furthermore, it detrimental to wild bee’s colony may threaten their survivability. We analyzed adhered body surface pollen incoming foragers (which...

The rapid decline in bumblebee populations within Europe has been linked to habitat loss through agricultural intensification, and a consequential reduction in the availability of preferred forage plants. The successful introduction of four European Bombus species to the South Island of New Zealand from England (in 1885 and 1906) provides an opportunity to determine how important different fora...

Approximately one-third of our food globally comes from insect-pollinated crops. The dependence on pollinators has been linked to yield instability, which could potentially become worse in a changing climate. Insect-pollinated crops produced via hybrid breeding (20% of fruit and vegetable production globally) are especially at risk as they are even more reliant on pollinators than open-pollinat...

Abstract The lack of seasonally sustained floral resources (i.e. pollen and nectar) is considered a primary global threat to pollinator health. However, the ability predict abundance flowering for pollinators based upon climate, weather, land cover difficult due insufficient monitoring over adequate spatial temporal scales. Here we use spatiotemporally distributed honey bee hive scales that con...

The selection of appropriate food resources by bees is a critical aspect for the maintenance their populations, especially in current context global change and pollinator decline. Wild have sophisticated ability to forage selectively on specific resources, can assess quality pollen using contact chemosensory perception (taste). While numerous studies investigated detection macronutrients impact...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS In andromonoecious taxa with separate floral types along the inflorescence, architectural or plastic effects can simulate floral sexual dimorphism. Both the primary and secondary sexual characteristics of the cyathia of the protogynous andromonoecious species Euphorbia nicaeensis were analysed according to their sex and arrangement on the inflorescence. METHODS The product...

Pollen spectrum, physicochemical parameters and volatile fraction of Corsican "spring" honeys were investigated with the aim of developing a multidisciplinary method for the qualification of honeys in which nectar resources are under-represented in the pollen spectrum. Forty-one Corsican "spring" honeys were certified by melissopalynological analysis using directory and biogeographical origin o...