Fig 1 - uploaded by Camila Junqueira
Content may be subject to copyright.
Variation in the number of active nests of carpenter bees over the study period, from March of 2008 to January of 2010. Hatched: Number of nests transferred, gray: Number of active newly founded nests, black: Number of active reused nests, dark gray: Number of active nests founded.
Source publication
sees sustainable scholarly publishing as an inherently collaborative enterprise connecting authors, nonprofit publishers, academic institutions, research libraries, and research funders in the common goal of maximizing access to critical research. BioOne (www.bioone.org) is a nonprofit, online aggregation of core research in the biological, ecologi...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... Founding and Reuse at Bee Shelters. At the experimental shelters, 58 new nests were founded and 14 nests were reused either after abandonment by the female or emergence of the brood during the study period, 79% (n 57) by X. frontalis and 21% (n 15) by X. grisescens. Most nest foundation and reuse oc- curred in the rainy season for both species (Fig. ...
Context 2
... number of active nests founded and reused and newly founded nests ßuctuated throughout the study period (Fig. 1). An increase of nests occurred by founding and reusing of new nests substrate and a decreased by abandonment of nests in development (with brood cells) or when females dispersed after emergence. Considering the number of introduced nests (n 29) and the total number founded and reused during the study period (n 72), the number of ...
Context 3
... year of study. Both Xylocopa frontalis and X. grisescens actively provisioned cells throughout the year and produced more than one generation per year. During the study period, a maximum of 30 active nests were observed simultaneously. The number of nest foundations was higher during the rainy season than during the dry season ( 2 4.5, P 0.05; Fig. ...
Similar publications
Taxonomy and evolution in Passiflora : a synthesis of current knowledge.
Passiflora L. is the most important genus of the family Passifloraceae, native to tropical America, South-East Asia and Oceania. Mainly distributed in the neotropics, from coastal regions to elevations about 4,300 m, its 576 species have adapted to highly diverse environments...
Passifloraceae sensu lato currently encompasses Malesherbiaceae, Turneraceae and Passifloraceae sensu stricto, with Malesherbiaceae being the sister of Turneraceae + Passifloraceae sensu stricto. In Brazil, Turneraceae is represented by the genera Piriqueta and Turnera, and Piriqueta in turn is represented by 38 species. The main objective of this...
The genus Passiflora is the most diversified of the Passifloraceae, and its palynology presents wide morphological variability. The objective of the study was to evaluate the pollen morphology of 18 Passiflora species in order to identify informative pollinic characteristics to contribute to the taxonomic classification of the genus. The morphology...
Citations
... The promotion of pollination services started by encouraging the reproduction and residence of pollinators inside crop areas, especially by increasing nesting niches (Junqueira et al. 2012(Junqueira et al. , 2013. However, bees have an ecological requirement to remain close to agricultural landscapes, such as nearby vegetation resources (Ramos et al. 2010;Russo 2016), and show different movement and activity patterns according to how resources are distributed across landscape gradients (Benjamin et al. 2014). ...
• Pollination is provided by biodiversity and maintains global food production. We investigated the effects of vegetation cover on the abundance of floral visitor and vine (Vitis labrusca Raf.) production. We expected an increase in both floral visitor frequencies and vineyard yields with an increase in native vegetation cover in the landscape. We also investigated different scenarios of visitor abundance with and without Honey bees (Apis mellifera L.).
• We surveyed floral visitors from ten vineyard plots with different native cover surrounding them and related both visitors and native vegetation with fruit set. Considering some of these vineyards, we compared physical and chemical traits of berries to understand how it varies according to native vegetation.
• Floral visitor abundance was positively related to native vegetation covering. However, considering only the native bee abundance, we found a dual (hyperbolic) response. Apis mellifera (L.) africanized was the most abundant species and exhibited the highest number of interactions, however, when removed from the network analysis, the relationship between vineyards and native bees became more specialized. The fruit size and mass of berries differed among vineyards, but also some chemical traits related to commercial quality of fruits such as soluble solids, pH and flavonoids.
• Vineyards surrounded by intermediate native vegetation present a balance between the resource availability from vineyards and native vegetation. Apis and non-Apis (such as flies and small bees) floral visitors, known to exhibit different effects on vine pollination, could hypothetically provide variation in vine production and quality. Considering a near 20% vegetation increment enhanced average 10 times more berries per brunch, the changing physical and chemical fruit traits by vegetation increment could also increase the aggregate value of vines and the value of pollination services in the economy.
... Other solitary species such as carpenter bees (genus Xylocopa) have been experimentally managed as pollinators of crops such as passion fruit (Passiflora edulis) (Junqueira et al., 2012(Junqueira et al., , 2013 and tomatoes (Hogendoorn et al., 2000). For example, in Australia, honey bees and bumble bees are not native whereas Amegilla chlorocyanea, the blue banded bee, is a very efficient native pollinator of tomatoes grown in glasshouses (Hogendoorn et al., 2006). ...
Cultivation of pollinator-dependent crops has expanded globally, increasing our reliance on insect pollination. This essential ecosystem service is provided by a wide range of managed and wild pollinators whose abundance and diversity are thought to be in decline, threatening sustainable food production. The Western honey bee (Apis mellifera) is amongst the best-monitored insects but the state of other managed pollinators is less well known. Here, we review the status and trends of all managed pollinators based on publicly accessible databases and the published literature. We found that, on a global scale, the number of managed A. mellifera colonies has increased by 85% since 1961, driven mainly by Asia. This contrasts with high reported colony overwinter mortality, especially in North America (average 26% since 2007) and Europe (average 16% since 2007). Increasing agricultural dependency on pollinators as well as threats associated with managing non-native pollinators have likely spurred interest in the management of alternative species for pollination, including bumble bees, stingless bees, solitary bees, and flies that have higher efficiency in pollinating specific crops. We identify 66 insect species that have been, or are considered to have the potential to be, managed for crop pollination, including seven bumble bee species and subspecies currently commercially produced mainly for the pollination of greenhouse-grown tomatoes and two species that are trap-nested in New Zealand. Other managed pollinators currently in use include eight solitary bee species (mainly for pollination services in orchards or alfalfa fields) and three fly species (mainly used in enclosures and for seed production). Additional species in each taxonomic category are under consideration for pollinator management. Examples include 15 stingless bee species that are able to buzz-pollinate, will fly in enclosures, and some of which have a history of management for honey production; their use for pollination is not yet established. To ensure sustainable, integrated pollination management in agricultural landscapes, the risks, as well as the benefits of novel managed pollinator species must be considered. We,
... They are known as carpenter bees because they build their nests on soft textured wood or dead wood (Sakagami & Laroca, 1971;Anzenberger, 1977;Camillo & Garofalo, 1982). Besides building their nests, these bee species can also use pre-existing cavities as TNs (Pereira & Garófalo, 2010;Junqueira et al., 2012), which allow the collection of pollen from brood cells and long-term studies about pollen diet. Both species are frequently managed in the region to increase the pollination of the passion fruit (Junqueira et al., 2013;. ...
1. The resource partitioning hypothesis states that sympatric, morphologically, and functionally similar species can coexist by temporal separation or low food overlap. Also, the interindividual variations about the use of resources, i.e., individual specialization, can promote the resilience and stability of their populations when an environmental disturbance affects food availability.
2. We used two sympatric and polylectic species of carpenter bees to test both the hypotheses of food niche partitioning and the occurrence of individual specialization.
3. The study was conducted in two Brazilian Savanna areas and the trophic niches of Xylocopa grisescens and X. frontalis were determined by the diversity of pollen types obtained from larval food samples. Individual-resource networks were constructed to elucidate the patterns of resources use by individuals of each species.
4. The populations of the two bee species moderately overlapped their trophic niche. Xylocopa grisescens mainly used the pollen of non-poricidal plants, while X. frontalis used pollen from plants with poricidal anthers. Individual-resource networks of both species showed weakly connected, highly specialized, and modular.
5. In conclusion, our results suggest that the coexistence between Xylocopa grisescens and X. frontalis probably occurs due to food resource partitioning. Furthermore, the results about individual-resource networks of both species seem to reveal the occurrence of interindividual variations regarding food resources foraging.
... Xylocopa species are important pollinators for both crops and native plants throughout the world (Chaves-Alves et al., 2011;Junqueira, Hogendoorn, & Augusto, 2012;Sampson, Danka, & Stringer, 2004). ...
Abstract Human activity continues to impact global ecosystems, often by altering the habitat suitability, persistence, and movement of native species. It is thus critical to examine the population genetic structure of key ecosystemservice providers across human‐altered landscapes to provide insight into the forces that limit wildlife persistence and movement across multiple spatial scales. While some studies have documented declines of bee pollinators as a result of human‐mediated habitat alteration, others suggest that some bee species may benefit from altered land use due to increased food or nesting resource availability; however, detailed population and dispersal studies have been lacking. We investigated the population genetic structure of the Eastern carpenter bee, Xylocopa virginica, across 14 sites spanning more than 450 km, including dense urban areas and intensive agricultural habitat. X. virginica is a large bee which constructs nests in natural and human‐associated wooden substrates, and is hypothesized to disperse broadly across urbanizing areas. Using 10 microsatellite loci, we detected significant genetic isolation by geographic distance and significant isolation by land use, where urban and cultivated landscapes were most conducive to gene flow. This is one of the first population genetic analyses to provide evidence of enhanced insect dispersal in human‐altered areas as compared to semi‐natural landscapes. We found moderate levels of regional‐scale population structure across the study system (GʹST = 0.146) and substantial co‐ancestry between the sampling regions, where co‐ancestry patterns align with major human transportation corridors, suggesting that human‐mediated movement may be influencing regional dispersal processes. Additionally, we found a signature of strong site‐level philopatry where our analyses revealed significant levels of high genetic relatedness at very fine scales (
... Cavity-nesting bees consist of an important guild of solitary species in which females nest in preexiting cavities in dead wood, twigs, and branches or within hollow stems (Krombein 1967). Some Neotropical species such as Centris analis (Fabricius), Centris tarsata Smith, and Xylocopa frontalis (Olivier) (Apidae) have been intensively studied and suggested as potentially manageable pollinators of different crop species (Freitas and Paxton 1998;Oliveira and Schlindwein 2009;Junqueira et al. 2012). The study of the trophic niche of those bee species is an important tool to be used in management programs and the conservation of natural areas in the vicinity of crops pollinated by them. ...
Bees are important components of mutualistic interactions with plants, playing a key role as pollinators of both wild and crop plants. In this context, studies on the plants visited by bees are important to determining conservation strategies. We investigated the use of floral resources by the trap-nesting bee species sampled in a semideciduous forest fragment. Trap nests were set in the forest fragment in three different zones: forest edge, 250 m away from the edge and 500 m away from the forest edge. Pollen analysis of the residual pollen content removed from the nests of 12 bee species revealed a total of 63 pollen types from 16 botanical families. The bee community showed specialized populations with no overlap in diet. Within the community, the diet overlap was higher in closely related species, the two Tetrapedia species and the two Centris (Heterocentris) species, than in the other sampled species. Although the studied bee community is composed of widespread bee species, our data showed a low niche overlap among them, suggesting the occurrence of food niche partitioning at our study site. The asymmetry in the period of nesting activities and floral preferences among the bee species are factors that might have contributed to the low niche overlap observed.
cavity-nesting bees / diet breadth / floral oil / nectar / pollen / specialized populations
... latipes) 和蓝胸木蜂(X. caerulea), 其访花频率呈现出 2 个峰值,分别在 6:00-8:00 和 16:00-18:00,而这两个时 段正好是 A. nieuwenhuizii 花柱下垂型和花柱上举型的花各自处于花药散粉和柱头接受花粉的最佳时 段 [ [54] ，授粉效果明显优于西方蜜蜂 [55] 。在 美国，X. varipunctais 对雄性不育棉花的传粉效果优于西方蜜蜂 [56] ；在澳大利亚木蜂属厉蜂亚属 Lestis 的木蜂能够成功地为温室西红柿授粉，其授粉效果比风力和其他授粉昆虫的混合授粉增产 10% [57] ； 在以色列，X. ...
Large carpenter bees (the genus Xylocopa), as an important group of bees (Apidae), are common visitors to flowering plants in tropics and subtropics. Their foraging behavior is characterized by long season of activity, high diversity of foraging plants, tolerance of high temperatures, activity under low illumination levels, and buzz pollination. These traits make them to be attractive pollinators for agricultural pollination in hot climates, especially in greenhouses, night-blooming plants, and some Solanum. In recent years, large carpenter bees have been demonstrated have efficient pollination service in blueberries, passion flower, runner bean, greenhouse tomatoes and greenhouse melons in foreign countries. However, evidence for their importance and effectiveness as crop pollinators is lacking for most plant species in China. This article reviewed the research progress on foraging behavior and pollination of Xylocopa, with the aim to provide a theoretical basis for the conservation management and utilization of large carpenter bees.
... Most Xylocopa species make their nests in trunks of a large number of species, including native and exotic trees (Camillo & Gar ofalo 1982;Camillo et al. 1986;D ıaz & S anchez 1998;Chaves-Alves et al. 2011); some species also nest in pre-existing tree cavities (Pereira & Gar ofalo 2010;Chaves-Alves et al. 2011;Junqueira et al. 2012) or other tissues of living plants such as the floral scape (Ramalho et al. 2004). It has been well documented that deforestation of native vegetation results in a decrease of Xylocopa species populations within passion fruit cultivation areas, reducing fruit production in Brazil (Benevides et al. 2009;Yamamoto et al. 2010) and other countries Calle et al. 2010). ...
• Loss and fragmentation of native vegetation negatively affect crop pollinators and productivity of several crop species. The yellow passion fruit is an excellent model to investigate this issue, because its main pollinators are sensitive to deforestation. Seasonality also influences fruit set of crop species that are pollinated by bees. Climate determines plant flowering patterns and consequently affects pollinator activity. Little is known on effects of pollinators on crop quality in general, and particularly of many tropical fruits that have multiple fruiting seasons throughout the year, such as passion fruit. Our hypothesis is that the distance to the native vegetation and climate seasonality affect the pollination and fruit production of cultivated, hermaphrodite, self‐incompatible, protandrous species that depend on large‐sized bees to set fruit.
• We observed flowers of the yellow passion fruit in eight areas at different distances (600–4,000 m) from a dry seasonal forest (Caatinga). We compared the frequency of the main floral visitor (pollinators and robbers) visits and fruit set among areas at the beginning and end of the dry and rainy seasons.
• Xylocopa species were pollinators, and Apis mellifera, Trigona spinipes and a hummingbird were robbers. Xylocopa visits diminished with increasing distance to native remnants, converse to what was observed for the robbers at the beginning of the dry season. Fruit set was higher at the beginning of the dry season. The distance to the forest affected quality of fruits in terms of length, diameter and skin thickness, which all decreased with increase in remnant distance.
• Our results show that insect pollination is higher in the dry season, increasing profitability and reducing labour costs for the producer. Considering the influence of distance to native vegetation on pollination, robbery and fruit quality, our study reinforces the necessity for conservation of native vegetation remnants.
... This is the case with yellow passion fruit (Passiflora edulis f. flavicarpa Deneger) (Camillo 2003) for which large solitary bees of the genus Xylocopa are the main pollinators (Pereira and Garófalo 2010;Yamamoto et al. 2012;Junqueira et al. 2013;Junqueira and Augusto 2016). In southeastern Brazil, Xylocopa frontalis is one of the most frequent species in passion fruit crop areas (Yamamoto et al. 2012;Junqueira et al. 2013) and presents great management potential as it is easily reared in trap-nests (Junqueira et al. 2012). Nest management techniques which include the introduction of nests and trap-nests for X. frontalis in passion fruit areas was shown to be effective for increasing the production and the sweetness of the fruits (Junqueira et al. 2013;Junqueira and Augusto 2016). ...
... All bees (founders and offspring) were tagged on the thorax with a code specific for each breeding area. These bee shelters, as described by Junqueira et al. (2012), were built in four areas in the municipality of Uberlândia, Minas Gerais State, Brazil (Table I): (i) Água Limpa Experimental Farm (ALEF) corresponds to a mixed vegetation system, which includes savannah formations and gallery forest, as well as experimental crops such as soybeans, corn, mango, acerola, passion fruit, and pineapple; (ii) Glória Experimental Farm (GEF) includes agropastoral areas and a semideciduous forest and gallery forest remnant of 30 ha; (iii) Ecological Station of Panga (ESP) includes only forest and savannah formations (Schiavini and Araújo 1989); and (iv) Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, Campus Umuarama (UFU-UMU), an urban area, is mainly occupied by buildings with few green areas with both native and exotic plant species. ...
... The greatest challenge in using carpenter bees as a pollinator is promoting nesting founding along a controlled selection of genotypes and mating (Keasar 2010), and our work took the first step towards this direction. The gain for passion fruit harvesting has been demonstrated (Junqueira et al. 2012;Junqueira and Augusto 2016), and the use of carpenter bees for pollination services is promising. ...
The commercial use of pollinators can be beneficial to many crops. In the case of passion fruit, the supply of nests of Xylocopa frontalis in crop areas was shown to be effective for the improvement of the production and quality of fruits, but little is known about how the manipulation of native bees could change the genetic patrimony of local populations. The aim of this study was to describe the genetic composition of X. frontalis bees attracted to two agroecosystems, one natural reserve and one urban area based on mitochondrial DNA (partial sequencing of the gene cytochrome oxidase I) and microsatellite markers. One of the study areas comprised most of the exclusive haplotypes (50%); however, the microsatellite data showed no structuring between areas. Based on our data, we suggest a plan for exchanging nests of X. frontalis to passion fruit areas taking into account the genetic composition of local populations, avoiding then disturbances to their natural genetic patrimony.
... This can also be used in trapping these species in artificial nests and manipulating them for pollination purpose on different agronomically important crops. Some early scientists like Junqueira et al. (2012) used trap nests for brood enhancement and management of large carpenter bees. Further studies should be carried through the year to get more comprehensive information about species. ...
The large carpenter bees are very promising pollinators for many agriculture crops. The nesting biology and
some foraging activities of these large carpenter bees are documented from the north-western Pakistan, most extent of its natural distribution, as these species are potentially important pollinators of cucurbit crops and some agriculture crops in the region. Nests of the large carpenter bees, Xylocopa pubescens Spinola, 1838 and Xylocopa fenestrata Fabricius, 1798, around the Ismaila village, Swabi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan, were observed and sampled from June to August 2012 and 2013. Nest details were recorded and foraging times on various floral species were documented, with bees preferentially nesting in dead wooden stems of Poplar (Populus deltoides) and Sesbania (Sesbania bispinosa). The dissection of nests was carried out and both nest architecture and nesting biology of the species were described. The importance of such studies on wild bees in Pakistan is important for the melittologists, as it will help in conservation of wild bees. The study is also useful in using large carpenter bees for pollination purpose.
... Nest boxes are used to manage bees and augment their numbers for pollination of a multitude of crops including alfalfa (Wightman and Rogers 1978;Bosch and Kemp 2005), carrot (Tepedino and Frohlich 1984), onion (Giejdasz et al. 2005), rapeseed (Teper and Bilinski 2009), coffee (Laliberté and Tylianakis 2010), almond (Torchio 1981;Bosch 1994), blueberry (Stubbs et al. 1997;Sampson et al. 2004), cherry , prune (Torchio 1976), acerola (Pina and Aguiar 2011;Magalhaes and Freitas 2013), apple (Wei et al. 2002;Sheffield et al. 2008b;Gruber et al. 2011) and passion fruit (Junquiera et al. 2012;Yamamoto et al. 2014 There are many facets of nest box design to consider when the aim is to increase the abundance of target bee species (Kim 1992;Bosch and Kemp 2002). Nest boxes should be large and to improve offspring production should not be limited in the number of nesting cavities available (Levin 1957;Stephen 1961;Artz et al. 2014). ...
A variety of solitary bee species that naturally nest in wood and plant stems aboveground also readily accept nest boxes, which are human-made devices that aggregate these nesting conditions. Nest boxes are sheltered bundles of hollow plant stems, bamboo or reeds, and holes drilled into wood or cavities made of other materials such as glass or polystyrene. In this paper, I examine the best practises in nest box material selection and construction, and the use of nest boxes to address four basic objectives related to our understanding of bee biology and enhancement of pollination services. A variety of materials and cavity dimensions are included in nest boxes that are used to monitor local bee diversity or to address fundamental questions in community ecology and environmental change. Others examine bee biology, physiology and behaviour that use nest boxes to obtain bees for further experimentation. The majority of studies use nest boxes in agricultural landscapes and in alternative pollinator management; these studies improve nest box design for target bee species to augment their numbers. Continued design and data sharing, as well as the refinement of nest box construction and deployment for specific objectives, will ensure they remain useful tools for bee science, conservation and alternative pollinator management.
