Specialisation in pollen collection, pollination interactions and phenotypic variation of the oil-collecting bee Chalepo
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Original article
Specialisation in pollen collection, pollination interactions and phenotypic variation of the oil-collecting bee Chalepogenus cocuccii Constanza C. MAUBECIN , Lourdes BOERO , Alicia N. SÉRSIC Laboratorio de Ecología Evolutiva y Biología Floral, Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal, CONICET, FCEFyN, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina Received 18 June 2019 – Revised 27 January 2020 – Accepted 26 February 2020
Abstract – Bee pollen gathering from a few related plant species is a specialisation known as oligolecty. Although it is an extended phenomenon, it has been scarcely explored in oil-collecting bees. At the geographic level, there is little information about oligolecty persistence and also about phenotypic variation of bees related with abiotic factors. We studied the pollen collection specialisation of the oil-collecting bee Chalepogenus cocuccii , its pollination interactions and phenotypic variation across its distribution range, by analyses of pollen loads, field observations and morphometric measurements. Observations and pollen analyses showed that across its distribution range, C. cocuccii preferred Nierembergia flowers not only for oil but also for pollen. We found two beemorphotypes, though phenotypic variation was not related to abiotic variables. We postulate that C. cocuccii is a narrowly oligolectic species, phenotypically and ecologically specialised in Nierembergia. oil-collecting bees / oligolecty / specialisation / pollination interactions / phenotypic variation
1. INTRODUCTION Since Vogel’s first discoveries in the 70s, oilcollecting bees and oil-producing flowers have received increased attention and research, and several aspects related to these bees have been described, as nesting and foraging behaviour, oil-collecting structures, phylogenetic relationships among others (recently revised in Possobom and Machado 2017; Neff and Simpson 2017). Most studies related to the interaction between oil-bees and oil-flowers were perElectronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s13592-020-00755-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Corresponding author: C. Maubecin, [email protected] Manuscript editor: Klaus Hartfelder
formed from the scope of the oil-producing plant species. Some of them focused mainly on variation of floral traits according to their pollinators, while others explored phenotypic variation, pollinators assemblage composition and the influence of abiotic factors on floral phenotype from a geographic perspective (Cosacov et al. 2008; Nattero et al. 2010; Cosacov et al. 2013; Giannini et al. 2013; Ferreiro et al. 2015, 2017; Carneiro et al. 2015; Espíndola and Pliscoff 2019; Maubecin 2019). However, despite those approaches, the ecology and interactions of many oil-bee species remain unknown, and in particular, little is known about the specialisation in pollen collection and phenotypic variation in this singular group of bees. Besides being a lipidic sou
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