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Competitive effects of the exotic Bombus terrestris on native bumble bees revealed by a field removal experiment

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Population Ecology

Abstract

A commercialized bumble bee pollinator (Bombus terrestris) introduced from Europe has colonized in Japan and potentially competes with native bumble bees for food and nest sites. To examine the competitive impacts, a field removal experiment was conducted in an area in northern Japan where B. terrestris has become feral. In 2005 and 2006, totals of 1,511 and 2,978 B. terrestris bees, respectively, were killed in six removal sites. In those 2 years and the pre-removal year (2004), the bee abundance and worker body size were measured in the six removal sites and seven control sites, and effects of the removal on the measurements were examined using statistical models. In 2005 only, the removal decreased the number of B. terrestris queens and increased that of two native species, B. ardens and B. hypocrita, the tongue length of which overlaps that of B. terrestris. The removal in 2005 affected the worker body size of neither B. terrestris nor any native species. These results show the competitive impacts of exotic B. terrestris on the queen abundance of the native species that are likely to share floral resources with B. terrestris.

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Acknowledgments

Some study sites were in the land owned by the National Forest Bureau, the Hokkaido Electric Power Co., Inc., and the Chitose Salmon Aquarium, and they kindly allowed us to set traps. We thank following many people for helping with our removal treatment: Go Abe, Yoshimi Asakawa, Hisashi Fujiwara, Haruka Horita, Tomoyuki Kawajiri, Akiyoshi Nozawa, Sachie Osaka, Shinpei Osawa, Satoe Shinohara, Hiroshi Yorozuya, Masashi Yoshida, Rika Yoshida, Akira Nakagawa, and members of the Turrepu Nature Education Club. We thank Hiroshi Ishii, Dulee Munidasa, and Diane Thomson for giving valuable comments on the earlier versions of our manuscript. This study was supported by MESSC Grant-in-Aid 16770020 to Teruyoshi Nagamitsu and a JSPS fellowship for young scientists to Tanaka Kenta.

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Author notes

  1. Tanaka Kenta

    Present address: Sugadaira Mountain Experimental Center, University of Tsukuba, Sugadaira-kogen, Ueda, 386-2204, Japan

  2. Etsushi Kato

    Present address: Frontier Research Center for Global Change, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Yokohama, 236-0001, Japan

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hokkaido Research Center, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute (FFPRI), Sapporo, 062-8516, Japan

    Teruyoshi Nagamitsu

  2. Graduate School of Environmental Earth Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 060-0810, Japan

    Hiroki Yamagishi & Etsushi Kato

  3. Tomakomai Research Station, Field Science Center for Northern Biosphere, Hokkaido University, Tomakomai, 053-0035, Japan

    Tanaka Kenta

  4. Institute of Low Temperature Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 060-0819, Japan

    Naoki Inari

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  1. Teruyoshi Nagamitsu
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Correspondence to Teruyoshi Nagamitsu.

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Nagamitsu, T., Yamagishi, H., Kenta, T. et al. Competitive effects of the exotic Bombus terrestris on native bumble bees revealed by a field removal experiment. Popul Ecol 52, 123–136 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10144-009-0151-7

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