Effect of manipulated sex ratio on insemination of the red mason bee Osmia bicornis L. under net cage conditions

Abstract

The red mason bee Osmia bicornis L. (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae) is a solitary gregarious species that is known to be a good pollinator of pear, apple, and several other Rosaceae fruit plants. Mainly females are active in plant pollination, and therefore they are of strong interest to farmers. As natural populations are usually male biased, here we studied the possibility of rearing a female-biased population of Osmia bicornis by examining the effects of sex ratio changes on female survival, insemination rate, and sperm count in the spermatheca. Using bees that had completed their winter diapause and were maintained in flying cages, we created three groups with different male:female sex ratios: 1:1, 1:2, and 1:3. The 1:3 sex-ratio group exhibited the best survival of females, but the lowest spermathecae sperm count. The insemination rate did not differ between groups. Our results indicate that-at least among bees housed in isolator cages for plant breeding- skewing the sex ratio towards more females does not affect bee survival, and efficient insemination can be expected with twice as many females as males.