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24 March 2023 The intersection of bee and flower sexes: pollen presence shapes sex-specific bee foraging associations in sunflower
Justin C. Roch, Rosemary Malfi, Jennifer I. Van Wyk, Deicy Carolina Muñoz Agudelo, Joan Milam, Lynn S. Adler
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Abstract

Foraging preferences are known to differ among bee taxa, and can also differ between male and female bees of the same species. Similarly, bees can prefer a specific flower sex, particularly if only one sex provides pollen. Such variation in foraging preferences could lead to divergent bee communities visiting different flower sexes of a plant species. We sampled bees visiting sunflowers to characterize bee species richness, abundance, and sex ratios on pollen-fertile and pollen-sterile cultivars. We asked whether female or male bees were more abundant on sunflowers, whether female bees were more abundant on pollen-fertile or pollen-sterile cultivars, and whether pollen presence predicted the sex of sampled bees. We further asked whether the bee community differed between pollen-fertile and pollen-sterile cultivars. Females of most bee species were more abundant on sunflowers compared to males, and females were usually more abundant on pollen-fertile cultivars. In three bee species, pollen presence was predictive of a bee's sex, with females more abundant on pollen-fertile cultivars than males. Further, the bee community differed significantly between pollen-fertile and pollen-sterile cultivars, with two bee species functioning as indicators for pollen-fertile sunflowers. Our results demonstrate that a bee's sex shapes foraging associations on sunflowers and influences abundance between pollen-fertile and pollen-sterile cultivars, and that pollen-fertile and pollen-sterile cultivars are visited by different bee communities. Bee sexes and flower pollen presence may be under-appreciated factors shaping pollination services in both agricultural and natural ecosystems, and could be important considerations for pollination of crops with pollen-fertile and pollen-sterile flowers.

Justin C. Roch, Rosemary Malfi, Jennifer I. Van Wyk, Deicy Carolina Muñoz Agudelo, Joan Milam, and Lynn S. Adler "The intersection of bee and flower sexes: pollen presence shapes sex-specific bee foraging associations in sunflower," Environmental Entomology 52(3), 480-490, (24 March 2023). https://doi.org/10.1093/ee/nvad021
Received: 29 October 2022; Accepted: 27 February 2023; Published: 24 March 2023
JOURNAL ARTICLE
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KEYWORDS
bees
pollen-fertile
pollen-sterile
sex ratio
sunflower
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