Abstract
Non-parasitic bees differ in the degree of their taxonomic specialisation for pollen collection to feed their brood. Surveys of published data on pollen specialisation by bees of central Europe showed that about two-thirds of species are pollen generalists (polylectic) while the remainder only collect pollen of one family, genus or species (monolectic and oligolectic). Proportions of monolectic and oligolectic species among bee families and genera in central Europe varies widely, from the entirely pollen-specialised but small family Melittidae, to the mostly polylectic Halictidae and Apidae. The Asteraceae plant family attracts the most monolectic and oligolectic species, followed by Fabaceae, Brassicaceae and Campanulaceae. Several plant families in central Europe host only a single bee species. Of the species included in the Red List of bees of Czechia, oligoleges are proportionally more strongly represented than polyleges. Most of these red-listed oligoleges are associated with specific and regionally endangered habitats, i.e. steppes or wetlands. Most of the bees are more limited by the presence of their habitat or nesting site than by the host plant, although this fact is not simple to evaluate due to the incomplete data on the floral relations and distribution of bee species.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank to the reviewers for very helpful comments. Lucy Boulton (Lincoln, UK) and Radek Blatný (Prague, Czech Republic) corrected the English. Alena Astapenková (Hradec Králové, Czech Republic) helped with the first steps of this study. This survey was supported by the Specific Research Grant from Univerzita Hradec Králové Nr. 2102/2020.
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Bogusch, P., Bláhová, E. & Horák, J. Pollen specialists are more endangered than non-specialised bees even though they collect pollen on flowers of non-endangered plants. Arthropod-Plant Interactions 14, 759–769 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11829-020-09789-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11829-020-09789-y