- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Who knew?
UC Riverside entomologist Peter Graystock and colleagues Dave Goulson and William O. H. Hughes of the University of Sussex, United Kingdom, just published first-of-its-kind research in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, that clearly shows the interaction of parasites between flowers and bees.
"Despite their beauty, flowers can pose a grave danger to bees by providing a platform of parasites to visiting bees, a team of researchers has determined," wrote UC Riverside senior public information officer Iqbal Pittalwala.
Graystock, a postdoctoral researcher in the UC Riverside Department of Entomology and lead author of the paper, was quoted in the news release: “Flowers are hotspots for parasite spread between and within pollinator populations. By showing that visits from parasite-carrying bees can turn flowers into parasite platforms, we can say that it is likely that heavily visited flowers may become more ‘dirty' with bee parasites. Planting more flowers would provide bees with more options, and parasite spread may thus be reduced.”
The researchers found four common honey bee and bumble bee parasites dispersed via flowers: Nosema apis (causes a honey bee disease), Nosema ceranae (causes an emergent disease in honey bees and bumble bees), Crithidia bombi (causes a bumble bee disease) and Apicystis bombi (mostly found in bumble bees). "These parasites are known to cause, lethargy, dysentery, colony collapse, and queen death in heavily infected bees," wrote Pittalwala.
The research, titled "Parasites in Bloom: Flowers Aid Dispersal and Transmission of Pollinator Parasites within and between Bee Species," was published Aug. 4 in the prestigious journal.
The abstract:
"The dispersal of parasites is critical for epidemiology, and the interspecific vectoring of parasites when species share resources may play an underappreciated role in parasite dispersal. One of the best examples of such a situation is the shared use of flowers by pollinators, but the importance of flowers and interspecific vectoring in the dispersal of pollinator parasites is poorly understood and frequently overlooked. Here, we use an experimental approach to show that during even short foraging periods of 3 hours, three bumblebee parasites and two honeybee parasites were dispersed effectively onto flowers by their hosts, and then vectored readily between flowers by non-host pollinator species. The results suggest that flowers are likely to be hotspots for the transmission of pollinator parasites and that considering potential vector, as well as host, species will be of general importance for understanding the distribution and transmission of parasites in the environment and between pollinators."
As Graystock pointed out in the news release: "With some 20,000 bee species, it is a surprise that only recently has research in pollinator health considered the interactions between bee species. Our finding may also affect the national and international trade of flowers unless sterilization of parasites on these flowers can be guaranteed. Otherwise, flower movements may also be moving pollinator parasites to new territories.”
We're looking forward to more of this research.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
They look like shiny blue and black needles.
Make that "flying" shiny blue and black needles.
We spotted this damselfly foraging on a Mexican sunflower (Tithonia) this week in our family bee garden. The blue was breathtaking.
Can anything be so blue? What species is this?
"By the amount of black on the middle abdominal segments, it looks to me like a male of Enallagma carunculatum Morse," said senior insect biosystematist Rosser W. Garrison, with the California Department of Food and Agricultur'es Plant Pest Diagnostics Branch.
Its common name is "tule bluet." It's a species of damselfly in the family Coenagrionidae, found throughout North America, according to Wikipedia. It's all over the United States, "except for the southeastern quarter."
Its blue and black abdomen is usually more black than blue. It derives its common name, "tule bluet," from the stands of tule it frequents. Its habitat includes rivers, lakes, ponds, marshes and bogs. It likes to hang out in the bulrushes.
The nymphs eat such aquatic insects as mosquito and mayfly larvae, while the adults feet on a wide variety of small flying insects, including mayflies, flies, small moths and mosquitoes. Sometimes they'll grab a few aphids from plants.
Our little buddy (along with other damselflies) was hanging out in our Tithonia patch.
But the Tithonia patch is just a few feet away from our fish pond...
Check out the images of tule bluet on BugGuide.net for more of a blue fix and more information!
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Honey bees sometimes get into little battles with one another.
Here's a case of a tiff over a Tithonia.
Two honey bees wanted the same Mexican sunflower (Tithonia). They each tried to claim the same blossom, bounced one another off, returned, and then battled again.
This particular blossom seemed especially inviting to them, while all around them were other Tithonias.
Sisters from the same hive? Competitors?
It's difficult to say. But at the end, there was only one winner.
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- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
That would be the cabbage white butterfly, Pieris rapae.
Its larvae or cabbageworms are pests of our cole crops, including cabbage, kale and mustard.
Pests? You bet.
According to the UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management (UC IPM) Program, the caterpillars "feed voraciously on both the outer and inner leaves, often feeding along the midrib, at the base of the wrapper leaves, or boring into the heads of cabbage. After 2 to 3 weeks of feeding, larvae pupate attached by a few strands of silk to stems or other nearby objects; pupae are green with faint yellow lines down the back and sides; there is no spun cocoon. The adult cabbage butterfly is white with one to four black spots on the wings; they are often seen fluttering around the fields. The whitish, rocket-shaped eggs are laid singly on the undersides of leaves."
Furthermore, UC IPM points out in its Pest Management guidelines, "the cabbageworm is active throughout the year in California."
So, what good are they?
Well, National Public Radio says we should thank them. In a piece titled "Why You Should Thank A Caterpillar For Your Mustard And Wasabi," NPR author Jessica Rack relates that the caterpillars are responsible for the exquisite, pungent taste of wasabi and mustard. Basically, they are the engine that drives the plants to make the chemicals in these substances that we find so tasty.
Scientists published their work this month in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Plant evolutionary biologist Chris Pires of the University of Missouri, a lead author of the study, compared the evolution of taste to a military arms race or what Rack described as "repeated escalations to have better weapons or defenses — but on an epic timescale."
"In this case, the opposing armies are caterpillars of the cabbage butterfly and plants in the order Brassicales, which today includes cabbage, horseradish, kale and mustard," wrote Rack.
Ironically, in another paper, this one published Aug. 10 in the journal, Nature Climate Change, scientists are worried that the cabbage white butterfly might go extinct in the UK because these are drought-sensitive butterflies. The paper, titled "Interacting Effects of Climate Change and Habitat Fragmentation on Drought-Sensitive Butterflies," should draw a lot of attention.
Pieris rapae already does in central California. Butterfly expert Art Shapiro, distinguished professor of evolution and ecology at the University of California, Davis, annually conducts a contest involving the cabbage white. The first person to find the first cabbage white of the year in the three county area of Sacramento, Yolo and Solano wins a pitcher of beer. A beer for a butterfly.
The contest, launched in 1972, is all part of Shapiro's four-decade study of climate and butterfly seasonality. “It is typically one of the first butterflies to emerge in late winter. Since 1972, the first flight has varied from Jan. 1 to Feb. 22, averaging about Jan. 20.”
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- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Confusion exists as to whether National Honey Bee Day is Aug. 15 or Aug. 22.
The group that formed National Honey Bee Awareness Day says its Aug. 15. Pennsylvania Apiculture, aka PennApic, launched the National Honey Bee Awareness Day in 2009.
The U.S. Congress, however, has proclaimed National Honey Bee Day as Aug. 22.
It really doesn't matter which day it is. We should celebrate National Honey Bee Day every day.
European colonists brought the honey bee to America (Jamestown colony, Virginia) in 1622. It wasn't until 1853, however, that the honey bee made its way to California, San Jose, to be more specific.
But where did the honey bee originate? For centuries, scientists thought it originated in Asia, but recent genetic analysis reveals it originated in Africa.
So all honey bees are descended from a common ancestor in Africa. It was out of Africa and into Europe and then all over the world.
In an article published in Softpedia, Charles W. Whitfield, professor of entomology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, says that "Our analysis indicates that the honey bee, Apis mellifera, originated in Africa and spread into Europe by at least two ancient migrations."
Excerpts from the article:
"The genus Apis contains 10 species, nine of which endemic to Asia. The only exception, Apis mellifera, the common honey bee, is found from sub-Saharan Africa to Central Asia to Northern Europe, and it is represented by more than two dozen distinct geographical subspecies."
"From Africa, the species spread to Europe and Asia, creating distinct genetic lineages (subspecies), including the Italian bee, used extensively for agricultural pollination."
Whitfield points out that the migrations "resulted in two European populations that are geographically close, but genetically quite different. In fact, the two European subspecies are more related to honey bees in Africa than to each other."
Whitfield relates that Europeans introduced in the Americas at least 10 subspecies from different parts of Europe, Near East and Northern Africa beginning with 1622.
North and South America quickly learned about the South African savanna subspecies, Apis mellifera scutellata, which scientists brought to Brazil in 1956 in an effort to increase honey production. It became known as "the killer bee" because of its aggression as it hybridized and displaced European honey bees.
"By studying variation in the honey bee genome, we can not only monitor the movement of these bees, we can also identify the genes that cause the variations--and that will allow us to better understand the differences," Whitfield said in Softpedia.
We're glad to see the exploding interest in the honey bee--from the backyard beekeeper to the rooftop beekeepers--and the work underway to protect it.
Apis mellifera needs to bee all it can bee.
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