Individual bee foragers are less-efficient transporters of pollen for plants from which they collect the most pollen in their scopae

PremiseBees provision most of the pollen removed from anthers to their larvae and transport only a small proportion to stigmas, which can negatively affect plant fitness. Though most bee species collect pollen from multiple plant species, we know little about how the efficiency of bees' pollen transport varies among host plant species or how it relates to other aspects of generalist bee foraging behavior that benefit plant fitness, such as specialization on individual foraging bouts. MethodsWe compared the pollen collected and transported by three bee species for 46 co-occurring plant species. Specifically, we compared the relative abundance of pollen taxa in the individual bees' scopae, structures where bees store pollen to provision larvae, with the relative abundance of pollen taxa on the rest of bees' bodies, which is more likely to be transferred to stigmas. ResultsBees carried five times more pollen grains in their scopae than elsewhere on their bodies. Within foraging bouts, bees were relatively specialized in their pollen collection, but transported proportionally less pollen for the host plants on which they specialized. Across foraging bouts, two bee species transported proportionally less pollen for some of their host plants than for others, though differences didn't consistently follow the same trend as at the foraging bout scale. ConclusionsOur results suggest that foraging-bout specialization, which is known to reduce heterospecific pollen transfer, also results in less-efficient pollen transport. Thus, bee foragers that visit predominantly one plant species may have contrasting effects on that plant's fitness.

Automated summary

Bees provision most of the pollen to their larvae and transport only a small proportion to stigmas, which can negatively affect plant fitness. The efficiency of bees' pollen transport varies among host plant species, and specialization on individual foraging bouts reduces heterospecific pollen transfer but also results in less-efficient pollen transport. This suggests that bee foragers visiting predominantly one plant species may have contrasting effects on that plant's fitness.