Effect of diet on incipient colony success for two long-tongued bumblebee species in the laboratory
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Insectes Sociaux
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Effect of diet on incipient colony success for two long‑tongued bumblebee species in the laboratory J. D. Carnell1 · R. A. Hulse1 · S. Page2 · D. Goulson1 · W. O. H. Hughes1 Received: 27 April 2020 / Revised: 7 October 2020 / Accepted: 26 October 2020 / Published online: 12 November 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Bumblebees (Bombus spp.) are ecologically and economically important pollinating insects and nutritional stress is one of the most significant factors causing their decline. However, our knowledge of the nutritional requirements of bumblebees is largely limited to just a small number of species that can be easily reared in the laboratory, so there is an important need to understand the nutritional requirements of a greater range of bumblebee species. In particular, the long-tongued, pocket maker species that have been intractable to laboratory rearing, yet are often of greatest conservation concern. Here, we compare the development and success of incipient colonies in two species of pocket maker bumblebees (B. pascuorum and B. hortorum) when fed either a less diverse or more diverse pollen diet. Our results show that both diets were sufficiently good for queens of both species to rear workers, but they performed significantly better for some variables on the less diverse diet. Our findings support previous work that suggests that a less diverse diet can be as good as a highly diverse mix in some respects. We also observed significant differences between species, demonstrating why we must not rely only on one or two model species to understand the effects of nutritional stress on bumblebee communities. Keywords Pocket makers · Pollination · Bombus pascuorum · Bombus hortorum · Nutrition · Rearing
Introduction Bumblebees (Bombus spp.) are ecologically and economically important pollinating insects for many wild flowering plants and crops (Garratt et al. 2014; Klein et al. 2007; Ollerton et al. 2011; Willmer 2011), but many species worldwide are experiencing significant declines due to multiple factors, including nutritional stress as a result of agricultural intensification and urbanisation (Carvell et al. 2006; Nieto et al. 2014; Ollerton et al. 2014; Williams and Osborne 2009). Bumblebees rely solely on the nutrients derived from pollen and nectar, with pollen providing proteins, polypeptides, free Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00040-020-00792-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * J. D. Carnell [email protected] 1
School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, UK
Bumblebee Conservation Trust, Stirling University Innovation Park, Stirling, UK
2
amino acids, lipids and sterols that are required for development, physiology and reproduction (Cardoza et al. 2012; Fliszkiewicz and Wilkaniec 2007; Genissel et al. 2002; Tasei and Aupinel 2008; Vanderplanck et al. 2014). The types, quantities, concentrations and ratios of these polle
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