Leioproctus

Leioproctus
Leioproctus fulvescens, Otago, New Zealand
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Clade: Pancrustacea
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Colletidae
Tribe: Paracolletini
Genus: Leioproctus
F. Smith, 1853
Type species
Leioproctus imitatus
Smith, 1853 [1]

Leioproctus is a genus in the plaster bee family Colletidae and subfamily Colletinae. Its members, also known as hairy colletid bees,[2] are mainly found in Australasia and temperate South America.[3]

Leioproctus sp. female on Haemodorum flowers in Western Australia

Species

See: List of Leioproctus species.

Description

Species within the genus Leioproctus are small, black, hairy bees ranging from 4–16 mm. Most are less than 10 mm in length, but the largest species, Leioproctus muelleri, reaches up to 16 mm.[4]

The legs and thorax are covered in hairs ranging from black through brown, red and yellow to white, although hair colour typically fades with age. The dorsal surface of the abdomen is mostly hairless showing the shiny black cuticle underneath. The clypeus and supraclypeus are typically hairy while the forehead is often mostly hairless, possibly to avoid interference with the ocelli. The supraclypeus is almost completely flat and is densely punctured throughout.[5]

Females may be distinguished by the pollen clumps carried externally on their scopae.[5]

Ecology

General diet

All their nutrients come directly or indirectly from pollen and nectar. Pollen is the main source of protein, required for growth, so it is consumed mostly during the larval stage, while nectar provides sugar, which provides the energy adults and larvae need throughout their life.[6]

Most species show medium degrees of specialisation for native flowering plants and trees. However, many species in New Zealand have been recorded visiting kiwifruit flowers,[5][7] and agricultural studies have caught them in clover pastures and orchards.[8] This plasticity varies between species, which some studies have shown to be more willing to feed from introduced plants than others.[5][7]

Foraging behaviour

Leioproctus species show almost no territorial behaviours, and often nest and feed within close proximity of each other, although they show a range of distances and foraging times between individuals as well as species. A theme common to all species is that they typically nest close (within 10 m) to rich food sources, such as large Mānuka trees, which are common in New Zealand and eastern Australia.[9]

Pollination

Most Leioproctus species are specialised, often to a particular genus or family of plants, something that is beneficial since specialised pollinators increase the likelihood of pollen being spread to the correct recipient.[10]

The males are relatively short-lived and have little impact on pollination, but the females intentionally collect pollen by accumulating it in the hairs around the head and thorax, while feeding on nectar, before moving it to the scopae.[7] This morphology allows pollen to be more effectively spread between flowers than other potential pollinators such as other insects and birds.[11]

Leioproctus are particularly important pollinators for many endangered native plants, such as rare proteas in Australia, many of which are strictly self-incompatible and rely on pollinators for survival. Multiple studies on Persoonia (geebungs) found that Leiproctus was the most common genus of pollinators at their study sites.[12][13] Many Leioproctus species live in dry woodlands on acidic sandy soils as they are mining bees that can tolerate such harsh environments.[13]

In New Zealand, Leioproctus is the largest genus of native bees, and the most common after introduced Apis and Bombus bees. Both those genera are more efficient than Leioproctus at pollination, but prefer introduced plants to natives, making Leioproctus and other native bees still vital to native forests.[14]

Research has gone into using native bees for commercial pollination and found positive results and successful trials of nest removal and re-establishment.[15] Because they nest individually, they are less likely to spread diseases such as Varroa mites and AFB, a factor of increasing interest in agriculture.[16]

Impact from introduced honeybees

The effect introduced bees have had on native plants and bees is still unclear, but some ecologists have concerns about the effect being negative.

Introduced honeybees have been recorded visiting many of the species previously associated with native bees. For most native plant species this is atypical and unintentional of beekeepers, but due to the high demand for Mānuka honey, Leioproctus bees are now seeing high competition in some places. Because domestic honeybees live in mobile hives, beekeepers can move these hives into high resource areas and then remove them once the nectar and pollen are depleted, forcing the sessile leioproctus bees to travel far distances to find resources. Although Leiproctus species feed from species other than Mānuka, many still rely on this food source to support them over the summer, so this increased competition could reduce Leioproctus populations which could then affect the other native plants they pollinate.[17]

Habitat

Leioproctus are solitary mining bees. They can tolerate a high range of substrate provided there are sufficient food resources nearby. This can range from forest undergrowth to roadside ditches to sandy costal banks to even currently occupied termite nests in at least one Australian species.[18] Leioproctus need warm temperatures (at least 15 °C) before leaving their nest, typically waiting until the nest entrance is bathed in sun. Because of this, most nests face towards the north, or if in flat ground, will be well exposed to maximise heat absorption.[5]

They prefer dry ground and will often dig horizontal tunnels in banks and cliffs. Their nests are not lined with water repellent coatings, as seen in other bee nests, but nest architecture shows they can also make sink traps, potentially to prevent water from entering cells, suggesting they can tolerate wet environments.[19] This tolerance to wet conditions has been observed in multiple studies where as long as it was reasonably warm, bees would be seen, no matter the rainfall.[5]

Life cycle

Leioproctus bees are solitary, meaning that each female is fertile and creates her own nest for her young.[17]

Leioproctus overwinters as diapausing prepupae in cells before they pupate and begin appearing in spring or early summer. Males typically appear first, closely followed by females. They mate immediately and the females begin nest mining while the males continue breeding. The males soon die while the females finish their nests and start producing cells. Larvae require a lot of pollen and nectar to grow and survive to adulthood, and the females have a lot of environmental pressures, so most only make 10–30 cells in their 6–8 week adult lifetime, before perishing. After the eggs are laid, the larvae hatch around 72 hours later and consume all stored food over the next 10 days, then over the next few weeks become prepupae and diapause until the following spring.[5][17]

Distribution

Australia

Distribution map of iNaturalist Leioproctus spp. sightings in Au.

Over 280 species of Leioproctus can be found across Australia.[20]

Native Australian Leioproctus bees forage on the flowers of a wide range of native species, such as Persoonia (geebungs) in Proteaceae,[13] and legumes such as Daviesia[19] and Acacia[21] in Fabaceae. Leptospermum, Eucalyptus and other myrtaceous trees are also visited by some species.

New Zealand

Distribution map of iNaturalist Leioproctus spp. sightings in NZ.

At least 18 species of Leioproctus can be found across New Zealand,[14] where they are the commonest native bees.[22]

They mainly forage on the flowers of native plants in the Myrtaceae family, such as Pōhutukawa, Kānuka and Mānuka. However, some species will also forage on introduced plants such as fruit trees and pasture vegetation.

South America

Screenshot from GBIF of the Distribution map of Leioproctus spp. sightings in South America.

More than 60 species of Leioproctus can be found across South America.[23]

Research and information on Leioproctus species found in South America is seriously lacking. In New Zealand and Australia Leioproctus bees feed primarily on species within the Proteaceae, Fabaceae and Myrtaceae families. These three plant families contain over 3,000 species in South America, so the bees' choice of forage plants and their feeding behaviour there may be similar to that in Australasia. However, as of 2024, this had not been confirmed.[24]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ "Subgenus Leioproctus (Leioproctus) Smith, 1853". Australian Faunal Directory. Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts. March 29, 2010. Retrieved April 7, 2010.
  2. ↑ Crowe, Andrew (2002). Which New Zealand insect? with over 650 life-size photos of New Zealand insects. Auckland, N.Z: Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-100636-9.
  3. ↑ Lawrence Packer (2006). "A new Leioproctus with unique wing venation in males (Hymenoptera: Colletidae: Paracolletinae) with comments on unusual wing modifications in bees" (PDF). Zootaxa. 1104: 47–57. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.1104.1.4.
  4. ↑ Batley, Michael; Popic, Tony J. (2016-11-30). "An unusual new Leioproctus species (Hymenoptera: Colletidae)". Records of the Australian Museum. 68 (6): 263–268. doi:10.3853/j.2201-4349.68.2016.1659.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Hart, Ngaire Hiria (2007-11-01). "Industrious Native Bees: A Case Study in Whangarei" (PDF). The University of Auckland – via gefree.
  6. ↑ Villanueva, M.T. Orzáez; Marquina, A. Díaz; Serrano, R. Bravo; Abellán, G. Blazquez (January 2002). "The importance of bee-collected pollen in the diet: a study of its composition". International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition. 53 (3): 217–224. doi:10.1080/09637480220132832. ISSN 0963-7486. PMID 11951585.
  7. 1 2 3 Donovan, B. J. (1980). "Interactions between native and introduced bees in New Zealand" (PDF). New Zealand Journal of Ecology. 3: 104–116. JSTOR 24052010.
  8. ↑ Malone, Louise; Aulsford, James; Howlett, Brad; Scott-Dupree, Cynthia; Bardol, Nicolas; Donovan, Barry (January 2010). "Observations on bee species visiting white clover in New Zealand pastures". Journal of Apicultural Research. 49 (3): 284–286. Bibcode:2010JApiR..49..284M. doi:10.3896/IBRA.1.49.3.09. hdl:10214/2634. ISSN 0021-8839.
  9. ↑ Batley, Michael (2020). "A TALE OF TWO SITES" (PDF). The Cross Pollinator (12).
  10. ↑ de Araújo, L. D. A.; Quirino, Z. G. M.; Machado, I. C. (September 2014). Dafni, A. (ed.). "High specialisation in the pollination system of M andevilla tenuifolia (J.C. M ikan) W oodson ( A pocynaceae) drives the effectiveness of butterflies as pollinators". Plant Biology. 16 (5): 947–955. Bibcode:2014PlBio..16..947D. doi:10.1111/plb.12152. ISSN 1435-8603. PMID 24628969.
  11. ↑ Goulnik, Jérémie; Plantureux, Sylvain; Van Reeth, Colin; Baude, Mathilde; Mesbahi, Geoffrey; Michelot-Antalik, Alice (December 2020). "Facial area and hairiness of pollinators visiting semi-natural grassland wild plants predict their facial pollen load". Ecological Entomology. 45 (6): 1296–1306. Bibcode:2020EcoEn..45.1296G. doi:10.1111/een.12913. ISSN 0307-6946.
  12. ↑ Bernhardt, Peter; Weston, Peter (1996-07-01). "The pollination ecology of Persoonia (Proteaceae) in eastern Australia". Telopea. 6 (4): 775–804. Bibcode:1996Telop...6..775B. doi:10.7751/telopea19963035.
  13. 1 2 3 Emery, Nathan J.; Offord, Catherine A. (2021-12-07). "Reproductive biology of the threatened and highly fragmented shrub Persoonia hirsuta (Proteaceae)". Australian Journal of Botany. 70 (1): 56–62. doi:10.1071/BT21068. ISSN 1444-9862.
  14. 1 2 Newstrom, Linda; Robertson, Alastair (January 2005). "Progress in understanding pollination systems in New Zealand". New Zealand Journal of Botany. 43 (1): 1–59. Bibcode:2005NZJB...43....1N. doi:10.1080/0028825X.2005.9512943. ISSN 0028-825X.
  15. ↑ Donovan, Barry J.; Howlett, Bradley G.; Walker, Melanie K. (February 2010). "Relocation and establishment of nesting populations of the native bee Leioproctus huakiwi Donovan (Hymenoptera: Colletidae)". New Zealand Entomologist. 33 (1): 109–113. Bibcode:2010NZEnt..33..109D. doi:10.1080/00779962.2010.9722198. ISSN 0077-9962.
  16. ↑ Newstrom-Lloyd, L. E. (2013). Pollination in New Zealand. Ecosystem services in New Zealand—conditions and trends. Manaaki Whenua Press, Lincoln, 408-431. https://oldwww.landcareresearch.co.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/77057/2_11_Newstrom.pdf
  17. 1 2 3 Fale, G. (2023). Competition between native bees and honey bees on mānuka flowers in New Zealand (Doctoral dissertation, The University of Waikato). https://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/server/api/core/bitstreams/cc490f66-c119-4bf6-b8f4-994eb757b934/content
  18. ↑ Maynard, Glynn; Rao, Sujaya (January 2010). "The solitary bee, Leioproctus (Leioproctus) nigrofulvus (Cockerell 1914) (Hymenoptera: Colletidae), in SE Australia: Unique termite-mound-nesting behavior and impacts of bushfires on local populations". The Pan-Pacific Entomologist. 86 (1): 14–19. doi:10.3956/2009-20.1. ISSN 0031-0603.
  19. 1 2 Rozen, Jerome G.; Houston, Terry F. (2022-06-28). "Descriptions of the Mature Larvae of Three Australian Ground-Nesting Bees(Hymenoptera: Colletidae: Diphaglossinae and Neopasiphaeinae)". American Museum Novitates (3989). doi:10.1206/3989.1. ISSN 0003-0082.
  20. ↑ "GBIF Occurrence Download". www.gbif.org. 2024. doi:10.15468/dl.tdxbnb. Retrieved 2024-10-18.
  21. ↑ Bernhardt, Peter (1987). "A Comparison of the Diversity, Density, and Foraging Behavior of Bees and Wasps on Australian Acacia". Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden. 74 (1): 42–50. Bibcode:1987AnMBG..74...42B. doi:10.2307/2399260. ISSN 0026-6493. JSTOR 2399260.
  22. ↑ John Early (March 1, 2009). "Wasps and bees - Native bees". Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Ministry for Culture and Heritage / Te Manatū Taonga. Retrieved April 7, 2010.
  23. ↑ "GBIF Occurrence Download". www.gbif.org. 2024. doi:10.15468/dl.qbrrfc. Retrieved 2024-10-18.
  24. ↑ "Observations". iNaturalist. 2024. Retrieved 18 October 2024.
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