Ecology and Natural History of Tropical Bees (Cambridge Tropical Biology Series)
David W. Roubik
Language: English
Pages: 526
ISBN: 0521429099
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Describes the prominent themes in the ecology, natural history, and evolution of bees, and includes discussions on pollinating behavior, natural enemies, reproduction, social behavior, and maintenance of the diversity of tropical communities. This book is the first to draw together these themes, and covers topics as varied as the evolution of obligate sociality and the reproductive diversity of tropical flowering plants. There are many new examples from the author's research on pollination ecology, mimicry, mutualism, coevolution, and competition.
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Produce nectar instead of fragrances (Ackerman 1983b, 1985). 2.1.5 Nectar A remarkable feature of nectar is its variable composition and quantity per flower, yet the sugar content of temperate and tropical nectars is nearly identical. Southwick et al. (1981) found nectars ranging from 18% to 68% sugar among spring flowers of nine plant families visited by bees in the state of New York. Roubik and Buchmann (1984) measured sugar concentrations ranging from 19% to 72%, and Roubik et al. (1986).
Then the foraging range of the bee will be larger. When the patch of many small flowers is worth defending, then it will be dominated by a stingless bee colony that possesses aggressive foraging behavior and at least some anatomical features appropriate for fighting (Sections 2.3.5, 2.4.3, and 2.4.4; see also Section 2.3.6a). Some flowers or resource patches persist over several days or weeks, and others are far more ephemeral and may be available for less than a day. Botanists have described the.
Pollen load (Free 1967). Potential foraging profitability is not adequately assessed by measuring flower density alone, or even by measuring the distribution of the resources that flowers contain. Patch selection, which is perhaps the common denominator of a wide range of behavior (Wiens 1978), provides examples of varied cost-benefit assessment and the principle of ideal free distribution, or the dispersal from crowded or depleted resource patches. Often the same characteristics of aflowerpatch.
Reproduction of solitary bees Reproduction by queens and colonies Genetic variability of bees Chromosomal variation, sex determination, and sex ratios Community ecology 313 4.1 Bee seasonality, abundance, and flower preference 4.1.1 Community studies of floral choice 4.1.2 Long-teim monitoring studies 4.1.3 How stable are bee populations? 4.1.4 In-depth studies of euglossine bees 315 317 327 336 341 4.2 Composition of bee assemblages 4.2.1 The neotroDics 347 348 4 Contents 4.2.2 4.2.3.
1985), even slight differences in reward between flowers similar in appearance would likely result in large differences in total visitation. Deception and mimicry systems can be cataloged as follows: 1. Automimetic systems. These apply to plants with dioecious or monoecious/ dioecious breeding systems. The female flowers have no pollen and may also be nectarless; they mimic male flowers with which bees have prior experience. The male flowers are often more abundant than female flowers and last.