Pollination management is the horticultural practices that accomplish or enhance pollination of a crop, to improve yield or quality, by understanding of the particular crop's pollination needs, and by knowledgeable management of pollenizers , pollinators , and pollination conditions.
31-503: Fideliinae Lithurginae Parharhophitinae Megachilinae Megachilidae is a cosmopolitan family of mostly solitary bees . Characteristic traits of this family are the restriction of their pollen-carrying structure (called a scopa ) to the ventral surface of the abdomen (rather than mostly or exclusively on the hind legs as in other bee families), and their typically elongated labrum . Megachilid genera are most commonly known as mason bees and leafcutter bees , reflecting
62-613: A few are introduced, accidentally and intentionally; globally the number of species identified exceeds 4,000. Thus Megachilidae represent 15% to 20% of named species of bees. The scientific name Megachilidae refers to the genus Megachile , translating roughly as large lipped (Ancient Greek μέγᾰς (mégas, "big") + χεῖλος (kheîlos, "lip"); their "large lips" and strong jaws are well-suited for collection of nest building materials. Most Megachilidae build their nests in above-ground cavities; they all are solitary bees. Their nesting habits means that in some studies of bee diversity, this bee family
93-447: A loss of nectar corridors for migratory pollinators. With the declining habitat and resources available to sustain bee populations, populations are declining. The increasing size of fields and orchards ( monoculture ) increase the importance of pollination management. Monoculture can cause a brief period when pollinators have more food resources than they can use (but monofloral diet can reduce their immune system ) while other periods of
124-415: A mass of clay or resin attached to a wall, rock surface, or plant stem. Nest cavities are often linear, for example in hollow plant stems, but not always (snail shells are used by some Osmia , and some species readily use irregular cavities). Some genera of megachilids are brood parasites , so have no ventral scopa (e.g. Stelis and Coelioxys ). They often parasitize related taxa. They typically enter
155-474: A profitable crop. Many of these were at one time universally turning to honeybees, but as science has shown that honeybees are actually inefficient pollinators, demand for other managed pollinators has risen. While honeybees may visit dozens of different kinds of flowers, diluting the orchard pollen they carry, the Blue orchard bee will visit only the intended tree, producing a much higher fertilization rate. The focus on
186-407: A single variety. Because apples are self-sterile, and different members of a single variety are genetic clones (equivalent to a single plant), this is not a good idea. Growers now supply pollenizers, by planting crab apples interspersed in the rows, or by grafting crab apple limbs on some trees. Pollenizers can also be supplied by putting drum bouquets of crab apples or a compatible apple variety in
217-418: A wall that separates the completed cell from the next one. The larva hatches from the egg and consumes the food supply. After moulting a few times, it spins a cocoon and pupates. It emerges from the nest as an adult. Males die shortly after mating, but females survive for another few weeks, during which they build new nests. Nests are often built in natural or artificial cavities. Some embed individual cells in
248-468: Is most likely to be the one encountered, even though the many ground nesting bees are much greater in species numbers (~70% of all bee species are ground nesters). For example, in Krombein's trap-nesting survey (1967), almost all bees that nested in his offerings were Megachilid species—40 of 43 occupying bee species. (They were outnumbered in diversity by almost twice as many species of wasps (75) that utilized
279-508: Is poor, but a Middle Eocene dicotyledonous leaf shows definite semicircular cutouts along its margin, implying that leaf-cutting bees existed at that time. Multiply-cut leaves and rare body fossils from the Eocene of Germany and the Paleocene of France suggest that Megachilinae began cutting leaves early in their evolution. Phylogenetic analysis yields an age consistent with this Eocene origin for
310-545: The European honey bee when pollination comes up, in fact there are many different means of pollination management that are used, both other insects and other mechanisms. There are other insects commercially available that are more efficient, like the blue orchard bee for fruit and nut trees, local bumblebees better specialized for some other crops, hand pollination that is essential for production of hybrid seeds and some greenhouse situations, and even pollination machines. With
341-527: The Middle Eastern farmer, who climbs his date palms to pollinate them. The Cooperative extension service recommends one honey bee hive per acre (2.5 hives per hectare) for standard watermelon varieties to meet this crop's pollination needs. In the past, when fields were small, pollination was accomplished by a mix of bees kept on farms, bumblebees, carpenter bees, feral honey bees in hollow trees and other insects. Today, with melons planted in large tracts,
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#1732876292113372-501: The area dedicated to growing bee-pollinated crops has grown over 300% in the same time period. To make matters worse, in the past five years we have seen a decline in winter managed beehives, which has reached an unprecedented rate near 30%. At present, there is an enormous demand for beehive rentals that cannot always be met. There is a clear need across the agricultural industry for a management tool to draw pollinators into cultivations and encourage them to preferentially visit and pollinate
403-412: The current economy is to bring beehives to the field during blossom time. Organisms that are currently being used as pollinators in managed pollination are honey bees , bumblebees , alfalfa leafcutter bees , and orchard mason bees . Other species are expected to be added to this list as this field develops. Humans also can be pollinators, as the gardener who hand pollinates her squash blossoms, or
434-567: The decline of both wild and domestic pollinator populations, pollination management is becoming an increasingly important part of horticulture . Factors that cause the loss of pollinators include pesticide misuse , unprofitability of beekeeping for honey , rapid transfer of pests and diseases to new areas of the globe, urban/suburban development, changing crop patterns, clearcut logging (particularly when mixed forests are replaced by monoculture pine), clearing of hedgerows and other wild areas, bad diet because of loss of floral biodiversity, and
465-403: The group. Lithurginae Lithurginae is a subfamily of woodborer bees in the family Megachilidae . These genera belong to the subfamily Lithurginae: Data sources: i = ITIS, c = Catalogue of Life, g = GBIF, b = Bugguide.net This Megachilidae -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Pollination management While people think first of
496-405: The grower may no longer have hives on the farm; he may have poisoned many of the pollinators by spraying blooming cotton; he may have logged off the woods, removing hollow trees that provided homes for bees, and pushed out the hedgerows that were home for solitary native bees and other pollinating insects. Before pollination needs were understood, orchardists often planted entire blocks of apples of
527-579: The hard glue-like resins can complicate management of other tunnel nesting bees. Carder bees, Anthidium , are unique for using plant fibers; there are 80 to 90 species of them in North America. Ironically, a non-native is best known— A. manicatum , the European wool carder bee, was accidentally introduced to the Americas in the late '60s and has now spread across the continent. It has been described as "... perhaps
558-512: The introduced Megachile rotundata , ( alfalfa leafcutter bees ), used extensively in alfalfa pollination, and the western native and frequently raised Osmia lignaria (the orchard mason bee or blue orchard bee), used in orchard pollination. Other Osmia and Megachile species are also in commercial use in North America, Europe and Asia. A suite of megachilid rely on plant resins for nest construction. These "resin bees" are typically smaller than honey bees, and effective pollinators, although
589-555: The job than honeybees, even more efficient than hand pollination. square meter/minute It is estimated that about one hive per acre will sufficiently pollinate watermelons. In the 1950s when the woods were full of wild bee trees, and beehives were normally kept on most South Carolina farms, a farmer who grew ten acres (4 ha) of watermelons would be a large grower and probably had all the pollination needed. But today's grower may grow 200 acres (80 ha), and, if lucky, there might be one bee tree left within range. The only option in
620-458: The last half of the 19th century by Jean-Henri Fabre , with his writings made further famous by his English translator Alexander Teixeira de Mattos ("The Mason Bee"); Fabre wrote many observations, including of other Megachilidae, from his home in France, and his writings inspired many future researchers and enthusiasts, from Charles Darwin to Gerald Durrell . The fossil record for megachilid bees
651-614: The local abundance of native pollinators. In a very few cases, it has been possible to develop commercially viable pollination techniques that use the more efficient pollinators, rather than continued reliance on honey bees, as in the management of the alfalfa leafcutter bee . In the case of the kiwifruit, its flowers do not even produce nectar, so that honeybees are reluctant to even visit them, unless present in such overwhelming numbers that they do so incidentally. This has led bumblebee pollination companies to begin offering their services for kiwifruit, as they appear to be far more efficient at
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#1732876292113682-492: The materials from which they build their nest cells (soil or leaves, respectively); a few collect plant or animal hairs and fibers, and are called carder bees , while others use plant resins in nest construction and are correspondingly called resin bees . All species feed on nectar and pollen, but a few are kleptoparasites (informally called " cuckoo bees "), feeding on pollen collected by other megachilid bees. Parasitic species do not possess scopae. The motion of Megachilidae in
713-448: The most widely distributed unmanaged bee species in the world." Like most Anthidium , rather than cutting leaves or petals, A. manicatum scrapes the hairs from leaves to use for nesting material. It is atypical because the male is larger than the female and constantly on patrol, protecting a "harem" by chasing and even attacking all interlopers including honey and bumble bees, its tail equipped with multiple prongs that can knife in between
744-411: The native pollinator is extinct or rare. These include crops such as alfalfa, cranberries, and kiwifruit . This technique is known as saturation pollination . In many such cases, various native bees are vastly more efficient at pollination (e.g., with blueberries ), but the inefficiency of the honey bees is compensated for by using large numbers of hives, the total number of foragers thereby far exceeding
775-575: The nest before it is sealed and lay their eggs in a cell. After hatching, the parasite larva kills the host larva, unless the female parasite has already done so, and then consumes the provisions. Parasitic species are of equal size or smaller than their victims. In 1921, the journal American Museum Novitates published a preliminary report on parasitic megachilid bees of the western United States. North America has an estimated 630 different megachilid species, including Megachile , Anthidium , Hoplitis , and Osmia . Most Megachilidae are native, and
806-455: The nests). Because they are (mostly) above-ground nesters and more commonly attracted to artificial nests, megachilid bees are also more commonly cultivated than ground nesting solitary bees. They accept nesting materials made from hollow stems, tubes, and blocks with preformed holes ("nest blocks"), and several megachilids have become important species for agricultural / horticultural pollination . In North America these cultivated bees include
837-500: The orchard blocks. The field of pollination management cannot be placed wholly within any other field, because it bridges several fields. It draws from horticulture , apiculture , zoology (especially entomology ), ecology , and botany . Growers’ demand for beehives far exceeds the available supply. The number of managed beehives in the US has steadily declined from close to 6 million after WWII, to less than 2.5 million today. In contrast,
868-408: The reproductive structures of flowers is energetic and swimming-like; this agitation releases large amounts of pollen . Nonparasitic Megachilidae typically divide their nests into cells. Each cell receives a supply of food (pollen or a pollen/nectar mix) and an egg; after finding a suitable spot (often near where she emerged), a female starts building a first cell, stocks it, and oviposits. She builds
899-552: The segments of almost any intruder. Neither the introduced Anthidium nor its American cousins are considered parasites, only territorial and at times aggressive, though some genera are, including Coelioxys ( kleptoparasites mostly of leafcutter bees), and Stelis (kleptoparasites of leafcutter and mason bees). While some Megachilidae are extensively studied for their commercial possibilities (or impacts), others are studied by naturalists . Mason bees, not commonly cultivated, are known through extended observation and writings in
930-414: The specific tree also makes the orchard bee 100 times more efficient at pollinating, per bee. Some crops, especially when planted in a monoculture situation, require a very high level of pollinators to produce economically viable crops, especially if depending on the more generalized honeybee. This may be because of lack of attractiveness of the blossoms, or from trying to pollinate with an alternative when
961-561: The year can bring starvation or pesticide contamination of food sources. Most nectar source and pollen source throughout the growing season to build up their numbers. Crops that traditionally have had managed pollination include apple , almonds , pears , some plum and cherry varieties, blueberries , cranberries , cucumbers , cantaloupe , watermelon , alfalfa seeds, onion seeds, and many others. Some crops that have traditionally depended entirely on chance pollination by wild pollinators need pollination management nowadays to make