Some bees resort to questionable tactics to obtain pollen. They may steal valuable food from other bees.
This kind of pollen theft has been witnessed before in the United States. Italian scientist reports sighting of bees sucking pollen from the back of a bumblebee.
In fact, they videotaped this bee and bee theft. And they detail their actions in the latest issue. Apidology.
“Bees are best known as pollinator pigs,” says Avery Russell. So stealing pollen from bumblebees “doesn't seem to be that difficult,” he says. Russell, a biologist at Missouri State University in Springfield, was not involved in the new study.
crime of convenience
Tiziano Rondei and Guiliana Marzi are naturalists from Milan, Italy. In 2019, they went on a summer trip to Mount Antra. It is located in Liguria, northern Italy. So they recorded a video of what they thought was a bee (Western honey bee) trying to push a bumblebee away from a woolly thistle flower. Then they took a closer look at the video. They realized that this wasn't just a competition for food. It was a complete robbery!
Like a bumblebee (bombas lapidarius) collected nectar and pollen from flowers, and some pollen grains were deposited on its hairy body. The bees squirmed closer to catch this pollen. Bandits were more likely to target male Bumble users than women. That may be because the males didn't seem to care much about depredation. None of the bumblebees responded aggressively.
Ronday and Marzi wondered if this kind of pollen theft was common among bees. So they returned to the scene twice over the next three years. They also observed bees at two other sites about 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) apart.
The researchers did not observe bees stealing from bumblebees at the two new locations. However, bees at the original site continued to plunder pollen every year. For example, in 2021, bees collected pollen from only three of the 31 flowers tagged for observation. Still, they stole pollen from 28 of the 66 bumblebees available.
Next, the researchers investigated how the sites differed. They suspect that bees are more likely to steal when pollen is difficult to obtain from flowers and there are many other bees around. For example, collecting pollen from woolly thistle flowers is difficult for bees.
Scientists had previously observed bees stealing pollen only in North America. Seen for the first time in kansas and after that California And Indiana. New sightings in Italy suggest this criminal activity may be a global trend.
Russell wants to know whether pollen theft has a negative impact on bumblebees. Or pollinate on the flower. He's also interested in whether other bee species steal pollen. “We notice that inside the nest, bumblebees nibble on each other's pollen baskets,” he said.
Source: www.snexplores.org
