Abstract
Bees are important pollinators for many flowering plants. Female bees are thought to be more effective pollinators than male bees because they carry much more pollen than males. Males of some solitary bee species are known to patrol near flowers that females visit. Because patrolling males visit flowers to mate or defend their territories, they may function as pollinators. However, the significance of patrolling males to pollination has not been studied. We studied males of a solitary bee, Heriades fulvohispidus (Megachilidae), patrolling near flowers and visiting flowers that attracted nectar-feeding insects, including conspecifics, on the Ogasawara (Bonin) Islands. To test the hypothesis that patrolling male bees may function as pollen vectors, we compared the frequency of visits by H. fulvohispidus to flowers of an endemic plant, Schima mertensiana (Theaceae); comparisons were made among flowers with a dead H. fulvohispidus, a dead beetle, a piece of plastic, and nothing (control flowers). Patrolling H. fulvohispidus more frequently visited flowers with a dead conspecific, a dead beetle, or a piece of plastic than the control flowers. Our experiment demonstrates that nectar-feeding insects (including conspecifics and other insects) enhance the flower-visiting frequency of patrolling H. fulvohispidus males on S. mertensiana flowers. Furthermore, we observed S. mertensiana pollen on patrolling males as well as females, suggesting that male bees may also function as pollen vectors.
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Acknowledgments
We thank T. Czeschlik and three anonymous reviewers for helpful advice and suggestions on this manuscript. We also thank the staff of the National Forest Division of the Ogasawara General Office for allowing access to the study forests. This study was supported by the Global Environmental Research Fund (F-051). The experiments complied with the laws of Japan.
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Sugiura, S., Abe, T., Yamaura, Y. et al. Flower-visiting behavior of male bees is triggered by nectar-feeding insects. Naturwissenschaften 94, 703–707 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-007-0246-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-007-0246-y