Differential Feeding Responses of Several Bee Species to Sugar Sources Containing Iridomyrmecin, an Argentine Ant Trail
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Differential Feeding Responses of Several Bee Species to Sugar Sources Containing Iridomyrmecin, an Argentine Ant Trail Pheromone Component Erin E. Wilson Rankin & Jacob M. Cecala & Nohely Hernandez Pineda & Qian Yue Lu & Erika Pelayo & Dong-Hwan Choe
Received: 3 April 2020 / Revised: 3 July 2020 / Accepted: 17 July 2020 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Pollinators such as bees need reliable access to nectar resources. However, competition for these carbohydrate rewards can be high among floral visitors. Moreover, invasive insects may further restrict pollinator access to flowers. For example, invasive Argentine ants (Linepithema humile) are known to harass and displace pollinators from flowers and reduce nectar reward acquisition. The foraging behavior of bees is strongly influenced by numerous chemical cues and signals at the flower. Thus, to avoid aggressive floral visitors, bees may use chemical cues when deciding whether or not they forage on the flower. Here, we demonstrate that Argentine ants deposit a pygidial gland chemical, iridomyrmecin, on a sugar source while feeding. Based on two-choice laboratory assays conducted with three commercially available bee species, the presence of iridomyrmecin in the sugar resource influenced the foraging decisions of Megachile rotundata and Osmia lignaria, but not those of Apis mellifera. Detailed insights into the chemical signals left by ants at floral resources and their effects on foraging decisions by pollinators can provide vital information for understanding the magnitude and mechanisms of impacts invasive ant species might have on pollinators.
E. E. Wilson Rankin (*) : J. M. Cecala : N. Hernandez Pineda : Q. Y. Lu : E. Pelayo : D. 0.05).
Discussion A higher rate of floral visitation by insects often increases seedset (Chen et al. 2018; Waters et al. 2020), although visitation is not a perfect proxy for plant reproductive success (Morales and Traveset 2009). However, resource competition often occurs when multiple species seek out the same floral resources, like nectar (Balfour et al. 2015). Such competition has important implications for foragers, because the presence of other floral visitors may influence the ultimate foraging success of pollinators. Here we examined whether a nectar competitor, the Argentine ant, deposits any chemical
J Insect Behav
Fig. 2 Number of bees (n = 30 individuals per bee species) that fed either on control sucrose solution only, on both control and pheromone sucrose solutions, or on pheromone-impregnated sucrose solution only. The dashed line indicates the expected number of bees in that category assuming no feeding preference (one-third
of individuals). “Low” indicates the pheromone, iridomyrmecin, at a concentration of 0.01 mg/mL, and “high” indicates the pheromone at a concentration of 0.1 mg/mL. alpha = 0.00279 with Bonferroni correction. ** p < 0.001
cues at the carbohydrate source during foraging, and whether those cues influence subsequent resource consumption by three diff
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