#Pollination Ecology

[fanciedfacts]

The way worker bees cap the baby larvae cells decides their gender and future role in the hive

[mindblowingscience]

Bacteria that live in soil and help roots fix nitrogen can boost certain plants' capacity to reproduce, according to an article published in the American Journal of Botany describing a study of this mechanism in Chamaecrista latistipula, a legume belonging to the Fabaceae family, which includes beans and peas. Bacteria in the soil enhance the attractiveness of the plant's flowers to pollinators via a type of relationship known as mutualism that is widespread in plants and animals. Microorganisms such as bacteria or fungi contribute to and benefit from mutualistic relationships with plants, whereby both sides obtain more nutrients or reproduce more vigorously, for example.

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[rebeccathenaturalist]

Xerces Society: Announcing The State Of The Bees Initiative: Our Plan To Study Every Wild Bee Species In The U.S.

This is really exciting news! For those unaware, the Xerces Society has been focusing on invertebrate conservation for over fifty years, and has pioneered a lot of the work to bring awareness to the devastating losses of not only insects but other terrestrial and aquatic invertebrates. It gets its name from the Xerces blue butterfly (Glaucopsyche xerces), the first North American butterfly driven to extinction by human activities.

Even if you haven't heard of the Xerces Society, you've probably come across various "Save the Bees!" campaigns. These frequently focus on the domesticated European honey bee (Apis mellifera), which, while it may be important to crop pollination in many parts of the world, is not a part of natural ecosystems in places like the Americas and Australia, and can be considered an invasive species at times. With the rise of colony collapse disorder (CCD) particularly after the turn of the 21st century, where entire domestic honeybee colonies would die off, the need to preserve bees began to gain wider public acknowledgement.

But what many people don't realize is that it is the thousands upon thousands of other native bee species worldwide that are in greater danger of extinction. They don't have armies of beekeepers giving them safe places to live and treating them for diseases and parasites. More importantly, where honey bees may visit a wide variety of plants, native bees often have a much narrower series of species they visit, and they are quite vulnerable to habitat loss. Most bees are not as social as honey bees and live solitary lives, unseen by the casual observer.

Invertebrates in general often suffer from a lack of conservation information, meaning that particularly vulnerable species may fly under the radar and risk going extinct without anyone realizing until it's too late. This ambitious program by the Xerces Society aims to solve that problem, at least for the 3,600+ species of bee in the United States. If they can assign a conservation status to each one, then that strengthens the argument toward protecting their wild habitats and working to increase their numbers. Hopefully it will also prompt more attention to other under-studied species that are in danger of going extinct simply because we don't know enough about them.

[reasonsforhope]

"Next Monday [6/17/24] is the start of National Pollinator Awareness Week, and one Colorado advocacy group is hosting a flower planting drive to rewild Colorado’s meadows, gardens, and just maybe, its children too.

Created by constitutional amendment in 1992, Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) is a state-funded independent board that invests a portion of Colorado Lottery proceeds to help preserve and enhance the state’s parks, trails, wildlife, rivers, and open spaces.

This year, GOCO’s offshoot Generation Wild is distributing over 100,000 free packets of wildflower seeds to collection points at museums, Denver Parks and Rec. offices, and libraries all over the state to encourage kids and families to plant the seeds in their backyards.

The Save the Bees! initiative aims to make the state more beautiful, more ecologically diverse, and more friendly to pollinators.

According to a new report from the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, 20% of Colorado’s bumblebees are now at risk of extinction. Even in a small area like a backyard, planting wildflowers can make a positive impact on the local ecosystem and provide native bees with a healthy place to live.

“The Western Bumblebee population has declined in Colorado by 72%, and we’re calling on kids across Colorado to ‘bee’ the change,” said GOCO Executive Director Jackie Miller.

Named after Generation Wild’s official mascot “Wilder,” the Wilderflower Seed Mix was developed in partnership with Applewood Seed Co. and packets are now available for pickup at designated partner sites including more than 80 Little Free Library boxes.

By distributing 100,000 Wilderflower packets, Generation Wild is providing more than 56 million seeds for planting in every nook and cranny of the state. All seeds are regionally-native to Colorado, which is important for sustaining the living landscape of bees, birds, and other animals.

Additionally, by using flower species adapted to the Mile High climate, landscapers and gardeners need to use less water than if they were tending non-native plants.

“Applewood Seed Co. was excited to jump in and help Generation Wild identify a seed mix that is native to the Colorado region and the American West, containing a diversity of flower species to attract and support Colorado’s pollinator populations,” stated Norm Poppe, CEO of Applewood Seed Co. “We hope efforts like this continue to educate the public on pollinator conservation and the need to protect our native bees and butterflies.”

Concluding her statement Miller firmly stated that children grow up better outside, and if you or a parent you know agree with her, all the information on how to participate in Save the Bees! can be found here on their website, including a map showing all the local pickup points for the Wilderflower Seed Packets."

-via Good News Network, June 13, 2024

[typhlonectes]

Tropical Milkweed—a No-Grow

Milkweed is in demand, and that demand has been filled in recent years by tropical milkweed, a non-native species.

But is planting tropical milkweed potentially doing more harm than good?

Tropical milkweed (Asclepias curassavica) is a non-native milkweed that has exploded in popularity in response to the demand for milkweed. It is simple to propagate, allowing growers to rapidly produce the plant for quick sale. The plant is also attractive, both to humans and monarchs, providing flowers and lush green foliage throughout the growing season – and that’s a problem. Tropical milkweed becomes a problem when planted in temperate areas where it does not die back in winter. A protozoan parasite of monarch butterflies, Ophryocystis elektroscirrha or OE for short, can travel with monarchs visiting the plants and become deposited on leaves. When caterpillars hatch and start eating the plant, they ingest the OE. High OE levels in adult monarchs have been linked to lower migration success in the eastern monarch population, as well as reductions in body mass, lifespan, mating success, and flight ability. When native milkweeds die back after blooming, the parasite dies along with them so that each summer’s monarch population feeds on fresh, parasite-free foliage...

Read more:

https://xerces.org/blog/tropical-milkweed-a-no-grow

[blessedscavengers]

kill your lawn save the pollinators

made in 2022

[jenfoundabug]

Fly feeding on nectar and/or pollen. I very often see more flies on flowers than Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, etc) or Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths). Let's save not just the bees, but all the bugs, regardless of how they look <3 (with exceptions when it comes to public health, invasive species, agriculture, etc) Species unknown, superfamily Oestroidea Northeastern Pennsylvania, US

[victusinveritas]

[swampwizards]

sphinx moth (Hyles sp.) visiting a population of unusually pink snowball sand verbena (Abronia fragrans)

these guys are also called hummingbird moths (for obvious reasons)

[awkwardbotany]

Another Year of Pollination: Pollenkitt

Pollination in flowering plants is the process of moving pollen grains, which carry sperm cells, from the anthers to the stigmas of either the same flower or a separate flower. If things go well from there, sperm cells will be transported via pollen tubes into the ovaries where fertilization with egg cells can take place and seeds can form. Pollen grain development occurs within the anthers, and…

[sandhya17]

A beautiful evening brown butterfly outside my door; those spots are false eyes to ward off predators.

[fanciedfacts]

The shape of the bee larvae capped cell determines their gender role

The shape of the honey bee larvae 🐝 cell capping, determines their gender and role in the hive. Cell capping is a unique process that worker bees use to produce drone bees, worker bees, and a new queen for the hive.

[mindblowingscience]

The researchers evaluated the national "Operation: Save the Bees" campaign, and their results indicate that what private individuals do in their gardens really can make a positive difference.

The fact that pollinating insects are crucial for the functioning of ecosystems and food supply is well known. However, many pollinating species are endangered or in decline.

In 2018, The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation launched a campaign to save bees and other pollinators, aiming to get the public involved by creating more favorable environments in private gardens. The actions that were encouraged were to create a meadow, plant flowers or set up a bee hotel. Around 11,000 Swedes responded to the call, and now researchers from Lund University have evaluated the measures.

"We wanted to investigate measures that the public themselves chose to implement in their garden, and how these can be the most efficient," says Anna Persson, researcher at Lund University and one of the people behind the study.

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[rebeccathenaturalist]

Wow--it's been two years since I started writing these quarterly chapbooks! I'm working on #9 as we speak, ready for release next month. It's been a fun project so far, a chance for me to deep-dive into some topics in a format longer than a blog post.

If you want to get the next one free in your inbox as an ebook (and the latest one on foraging safety as well), you can join my monthly email newsletter at https://rebeccalexa.com/news-updates/ - stick around, and you'll get a new ebook every three months. Or you can purchase paperbacks and ebooks of any of the chapbooks at https://rebeccalexa.com/chapbooks/ - thank you :)

[ethereal-forest-furry]

flowers on my woodland strawberries :3 these are one of the ancestors of domesticated strawberries, native to eastern north america. theyre distantly related to roses and their leaves feed over forty types of caterpillars!!! thats so many that theyre considered a keystone species - meaning the entire ecosystem could collapse without them. their fruits are DELICIOUS and taste way stronger than domesticated strawberries - these are where that "strawberry" flavor originally comes from :3

[typhlonectes]