Bombus impatiens (Hymenoptera: Apidae) display reduced pollen foraging behavior when marked with bee tags vs. paint

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17161/jom.v0i62.5679

Keywords:

bumble bee, cyanoacrylate, sonication, pollination, buzz pollination, Bombus impatiens, Apoidea, Apidae, Apinae, Bombini, Anthophila

Abstract

Numbered bee tags, developed for marking honey bees (Apis mellifera Linnaeus), are glued to the mesosoma of many bees to uniquely identify them.  We recorded whether or not bees sonicated to collect pollen after being marked, and we compared the sonication frequency, sonication length, and wing beat frequency of Bombus (Pyrobombus) impatiens Cresson that were tagged with bee tags vs. marked with paint.  We found that bees with tags glued to their mesosoma had no significant change in wing beat frequency, sonication frequency, or sonication length, relative to bees that were marked with paint; however, we found that the probability of collecting pollen via sonication after being marked was much lower for bees marked with bee tags vs. paint.

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Author Biographies

  • Callin Morgan Switzer, Harvard University

    Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology

    PhD Candidate

  • Stacey A. Combes, University of California, Davis

    Department of Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior

    PI

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Published

18-07-2016

How to Cite

Switzer, C. M., & Combes, S. A. (2016). Bombus impatiens (Hymenoptera: Apidae) display reduced pollen foraging behavior when marked with bee tags vs. paint. Journal of Melittology, 62, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.17161/jom.v0i62.5679