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Difference in pollen specialisation in spring bees Andrena vaga (Andrenidae) and Colletes cunicularius (Colletidae) during their nesting season

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Abstract

Andrena vaga and Colletes cunicularius are solitary bees distributed in Europe in regions with sandy substrate. They both nest in large aggregations and often together. Both species occur in early spring and collect pollen usually from willows (Salix). We studied the pollen loads carried into nests by females of both species during the whole nesting season in one locality (Lázně Bohdaneč, Czech Republic). Additional material was collected in 24 other localities but usually not during the whole nesting season. The results showed that Andrena vaga is monolectic on Salix but C. cunicularius collected 11 pollen types, and one type usually dominated in each pollen load. The pollen of Salix represented 60% or more, especially in the second half of the nesting season, when was collected less frequently. Although C. cunicularius is certainly polylectic, individual specialisation to one pollen type was revealed during foraging bouts. The pollen diet of C. cunicularius partly corresponded with other polylectic bees in the studied locality. The main difference was pollen of Taraxacum (Cichorioideae), which was the most represented pollen type in pollen loads of polylectic bees but nearly absent in pollen loads of C. cunicularius. Andrena vaga is probably behaviourally specialised on pollen collected on Salix only and is unable to collect pollen from flowers of other plants, contrary to C. cunicularius.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Eliška Bláhová (Přelouč, Czech Republic), Petr Heneberg (Praha, Czech Republic), Peter Šima (Nové Zámky, Slovakia) and Lucie Hostinská (Hradec Králové, Czech Republic) for help with field surveys. The study was supported by the Specific Research Project of University Hradec Králové Nr. 2102/2020.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Science, University of Hradec Kralove, Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic

    Petr Bogusch & Fereshteh Amirmohammedi

  2. Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

    Daniel Benda

  3. Institute of Zoology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Ladislav Roller

  4. Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, České Budějovice, Czech Republic

    Samane Sakaki

  5. Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University in Brno, Brno, Czech Republic

    Libor Petr

  6. Department of Entomology, National Museum, Prague, Czech Republic

    Daniel Benda

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  1. Petr Bogusch
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Contributions

PB prepared the design of the project, collected part of the data and analysed most of pollen, determined the bees, and wrote the manuscript, FA prepared the pollen samples for determination, DB, LR and SS collected part of the material, LP identified part of the pollen, SS did the analysis.

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Correspondence to Petr Bogusch.

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Bogusch, P., Amirmohammedi, F., Benda, D. et al. Difference in pollen specialisation in spring bees Andrena vaga (Andrenidae) and Colletes cunicularius (Colletidae) during their nesting season. Arthropod-Plant Interactions 16, 459–467 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11829-022-09910-3

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