Pollen collection by the western honeybee and common eastern bumble bee foraging in a common landscape and applications for agri-environment schemes

Abstract

Agricultural landscapes often provide an impoverished environment for bees given their limited plant and pollen diversity. Agri-environment schemes (AES) such as flower strips have been developed to improve the quality of the agricultural environment for bees but their efficacy varies with their composition and, for specific pollinators, with the value of the available plant species. This study provides a detailed report of the pollen collection patterns of two bee species, the western honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) and the common eastern bumble bee (Bombus impatiens Cresson), over their foraging season. We compared the floral constancy, pollen richness and diversity of the two bee species, and the pollen morphotypes of bee-collected pollen in relation to resource availability. The honeybee was more flower constant while the bumble bee collected a greater family level diversity of pollen. While both bee species collected similar resources over their entire foraging season, the preferred morphotypes in given surveys differed between bee species. Neither bee species collected resources based on their availability but indicated patterns of preference and avoidance. We discuss how such knowledge can inform the composition of AES to best sustain these pollinators in more impoverished depauperate agricultural landscapes.