Nectar concentrating behavior by bees (Hymenoptera: Anthophila)

Zachary M. Portman; John S. Ascher; Daniel P. Cariveau

doi:10.1007/s13592-021-00895-1

Nectar concentrating behavior by bees (Hymenoptera: Anthophila)

Zachary M. Portman, John S. Ascher, Daniel P. Cariveau

Entomology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

Nectar is one of the most important resources used by bees. It has long been known that some bees concentrate nectar externally with their mouthparts, including honey bees and stingless bees. However, observations of this behavior in disparate bee groups suggest this behavior is widespread. Here, we combine accounts and images from publications, community science portals, and our field observations to document the breadth of nectar concentrating behavior in bees. We find this behavior to be taxonomically widespread, with observations of nectar concentrating behavior documented in 51 genera in six families. It is especially conspicuous in halictid and hylaeine bees. Nectar concentrating has various purposes, including preparation for long-term storage in hives, modification before adding to larval provisions, removal of excess water for efficient storage in the crop, thermoregulation, and potentially for nest construction. Our methods highlight how community science images validated by experts represent a rapidly growing source for aggregating novel behavioral data.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	1169-1194
Number of pages	26
Journal	Apidologie
Volume	52
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s13592-021-00895-1
State	Published - Dec 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
A portion of the field observations reported here were made during work funded by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grant F16AP00680 to ZMP. JSA was supported by Singapore Research Foundation grant NRF2017NRF-NSFC001-015.

Funding Information:
We thank Corey Andrikopoulos for providing access to his greenhouse experiments on Osmia lignaria. Special thanks to Laurence Sanders, Tom Murray, and Emil Petrinic (@sfbaybees) for allowing use of their photographs in the figures. We are extremely grateful for all the hard work from observers, identifiers, curators, and administrators of the community science portals BugGuide and iNaturalist and photographers of published bee images. We thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on the manuscript.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, INRAE, DIB and Springer-Verlag France SAS, part of Springer Nature.

Keywords

Apoidea
citizen science
dehydrating
ripening
thickening
tongue-lashing

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abstract = "Nectar is one of the most important resources used by bees. It has long been known that some bees concentrate nectar externally with their mouthparts, including honey bees and stingless bees. However, observations of this behavior in disparate bee groups suggest this behavior is widespread. Here, we combine accounts and images from publications, community science portals, and our field observations to document the breadth of nectar concentrating behavior in bees. We find this behavior to be taxonomically widespread, with observations of nectar concentrating behavior documented in 51 genera in six families. It is especially conspicuous in halictid and hylaeine bees. Nectar concentrating has various purposes, including preparation for long-term storage in hives, modification before adding to larval provisions, removal of excess water for efficient storage in the crop, thermoregulation, and potentially for nest construction. Our methods highlight how community science images validated by experts represent a rapidly growing source for aggregating novel behavioral data.",

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Nectar concentrating behavior by bees (Hymenoptera: Anthophila)

Abstract

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Keywords

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