We identified two genomic regions that affect the amount of pollen stored in honey bee colonies and influence whether foragers will collect pollen or nectar. We selected for the amount of pollen stored in combs of honey bee colonies, a colony-level trait, and then used random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers and interval mapping procedures with data from backcross colonies to identify t...

In a hypothesis that has remained controversial since its inception, Darwin suggested that long-tubed flowers and long-tongued pollinators evolved together in a coevolutionary race, with each selecting for increasing length in the other. Although the selective pressures that flowers impose on tongue length are relatively straightforward, in that longer tongues allow access to more nectar, selec...

We all appreciate the beauty of flowers, but we seldom consider their function in the life cycle of the plant. The function of beautiful flowers is to advertise the presence of nectar. Floral nectar is the key component in the mutualism between flowering plants and their pollinators. Plants offer nectar as a reward for the transport of pollen by animal vectors. Studying nectar is challenging be...

Phytochemicals produced by plants, including at flowers, function in protection against plant diseases, and have a long history of use against trypanosomatid infection. Floral nectar and pollen, the sole food sources for many species of insect pollinators, contain phytochemicals that have been shown to reduce trypanosomatid infection in bumble and honey bees when fed as isolated compounds. Nect...

The ecology of all bumblebees (Bombus spp.) is similar, yet some species have declined greatly while others remain abundant. We examine whether abundance is related to diet breadth. The floral visits of bumblebees were examined on Salisbury Plain, UK. All of the species examined gathered pollen mostly from Fabaceae. All species gathered nectar from a broader range of flowers than they did polle...

Pollinators that collect pollen - and specifically, pollen-specialist bees - are often considered to be the best pollinators of a (host) plant. Although pollen collectors and pollen specialists often benefit host plants, especially in the pollen that they deliver (their pollination "effectiveness"), they can also exact substantial costs because they are motivated to collect as much pollen as po...

Iconic examples of insect pollination have emphasized narrowly specialized pollinator mutualisms such as figs and fig wasps and yuccas and yucca moths. However, recent attention by pollination ecologists has focused on the broad spectra of pollinated plants by generalist pollinators such as bees. Bees have great impact for formulating hypotheses regarding specialization versus generalization in...

Animals collecting resources that are fixed in space but replenish over time, such as floral nectar and pollen, often establish small foraging areas to which they return faithfully. Some repeatedly visit a set of patches in a significantly predictable sequence (socalled ‘‘trapline foraging’’), which may allow them to focus on more profitable patches in their foraging areas. The functional signi...

Pollen, the primary dietary source of proteins, lipids, vitamins, and minerals, is essential to the physiological development of adult honey bees (Apis mellifera L.). A varied pollen diet is vital to immune system maintenance, organ development, and colony succession via brood production. The reasons for the recent decline in honey bee populations are wide-ranging but include a lack of diverse ...

Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am. 81(3): 419-427 (1988) ABSTRACT The anthophorid bee, Hahropoda (=Emphoropsis [R. W. Brooks, personal communication]) laboriosa (F.), is a locally abundant, vernal, univoltine species. It flies from February through April in Georgia and Alabama. In these states, females are oligolectic on Vaccinium spp., particularly V. ashei Reade and V. corymbosum L., with Gelsemium sempe...