Decline of Native Bees (Apidae: Euglossa) in a Tropical Forest of Panama Álvaro Vega-Hidalgo, Yostin Añino, Erin Krichilsky, Adam R
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Decline of native bees (Apidae: Euglossa) in a tropical forest of Panama Álvaro Vega-Hidalgo, Yostin Añino, Erin Krichilsky, Adam R. Smith, Alonso Santos-Murgas, Dumas Gálvez To cite this version: Álvaro Vega-Hidalgo, Yostin Añino, Erin Krichilsky, Adam R. Smith, Alonso Santos-Murgas, et al.. Decline of native bees (Apidae: Euglossa) in a tropical forest of Panama. Apidologie, 2020, 51 (6), pp.1038-1050. 10.1007/s13592-020-00781-2. hal-03265528 HAL Id: hal-03265528 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03265528 Submitted on 21 Jun 2021 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Apidologie (2020) 51:1038–1050 Original article * INRAE, DIB and Springer-Verlag France SAS, part of Springer Nature, 2020, corrected publication 2020 DOI: 10.1007/s13592-020-00781-2 Decline of native bees (Apidae: Euglossa )inatropical forest of Panama 1 2,3 4 5 Álvaro VEGA-HIDALGO , Yostin AÑINO , Erin KRICHILSKY , Adam R. SMITH , 2 6,7 Alonso SANTOS-MURGAS , Dumas GÁLVEZ 1Escuela de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica, Heredia, Costa Rica 2Museo de Invertebrados G.B. Fairchild, Universidad de Panamá, Panamá, Panama 3Programa de Maestría en Gestión Ambiental y Sostenibilidad, Universidad del Istmo, Panamá, Panama 4Department of Entomology, Cornell University, Ithaca, USA 5Department of Biological Sciences, George Washington University, Washington DC, USA 6Programa Centroamericano de Maestría en Entomología, Panamá Universidad de Panamá, Estafeta Universitaria, Avenida Simón Bolívar, 0824, Panama, Panama 7COIBA AIP, Panama, Panama Received 19 December 2019 – Revised 25 May 2020 – Accepted5June2020 Abstract – We measured abundance, diversity, and richness of Euglossa bees (Euglossini, Apidae) in lowland semi-deciduous forest in Darién National Park, Panamá, during the wet and dry seasons in the canopy and understory for five consecutive years (2013 to 2017) using McPhail traps baited with eucalyptus oil. We found a precipitous decline in abundance and richness throughout the 5 years of our study. Alpha diversity also declined throughout the study. Abundance, species richness and alpha diversity were significantly higher in the dry than in the wet season. There were no significant differences in the diversity, richness, or abundance between the canopy and understory. Our data contrast sharply with previous long-term studies of euglossine bees which showed stable populations. abundance / insect decline / species richness / tropical forest / pollinator 1. INTRODUCTION et al. 2015; Goulson et al. 2015; Koh et al. 2016; Ollerton 2017; Sánchez-Bayo and Wyckhuys Several recent studies have demonstrated wide- 2019). These declines are typically associated spread declines in bee populations (Biesmeijer with anthropogenic disturbances such as habitat et al. 2006; Kosior et al. 2007;CollaandPacker loss or pesticide use. The prominent role of an- 2008; Frankie et al. 2009; Winfree et al. 2009; thropogenic disturbance in bee population de- Brown and Paxton 2009; Potts et al. 2010; clines suggests that bees in undisturbed areas Ollerton et al. 2011;Burkleetal.2013; Senapathi may fare better. Some studies of bee populations in protected or otherwise stable areas show rela- Electronic supplementary material The online version of tively stable populations (e.g., Frankie et al. 1998; this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s13592-020-00781-2) Roubik and Wolda 2001; Roubik 2001; Roubik contains supplementary material, which is available to and Villanueva-Gutiérrez 2009;Archer2013; authorized users. Herrera 2019). This suggests that long-term sur- Corresponding author: D. Gálvez, dumas.galvezs@up. vey work in intact, protected habitats is thus im- ac.pa portant for documenting the fauna in those regions Manuscript editor: Cedric Alaux and also monitoring changes over time Decline of native bees (Apidae: Euglossa ) in a tropical forest of Panama 1039 independent of anthropogenic influences Peruquettietal.(1999) also monitored euglossine (Meiners et al. 2019). bees for three consecutive years in the Atlantic Here, we investigate population trends in abun- forest of Brazil, and Pearson and Dressler (1985) dance, richness, and diversity over 5 years (2013– sampled bees for 2 years in southeastern Peru; 2017) of the largest genus of Euglossine bees in the neither study found clear abundance trends. Neotropics, Euglossa (Roubik and Hanson 2004), Nemésio (2013) returned to a previously sampled in a primary forest in Darién National Park, Panama. site 12 years later to document the effects of defor- Euglossine bees (Euglossini, Apidae), commonly estation since the original sample, finding that known orchid bees, are a diverse tribe with more forest-dependent species declined but species asso- than 230 currently recognized species and are found ciated with open habitat became more common. only in the Neotropics (Nemésio and Rasmussen In our study, we used scent traps to measure 2011). Their common name comes from the remark- abundance, richness, and diversity of Euglossa in able behavior of the males, which collect scents that both the understory and canopy levels, because they use to attract females during courtship (Eltz forest stratification (height) can generate differences et al. 1999, 2005). Many orchids produce scents in insect communities (Roubik 1993; Schulze et al. attractive to the males so that the males pollinate 2001; Stangler et al. 2016). Trends for orchid bees the orchids while collecting scents (Dressler 1982). are unclear; some studies found higher abundance in However not all species pollinate orchids, and the the canopy (Ferreira et al. 2011) and higher richness importance of euglossines extends beyond orchids, in the understory (Martins and Souza 2005). Never- as these bees also visit other plants in search of theless, we predicted that at least abundance would nectar, pollen, fragrances, and resins (Roubik and be higher in the understory, which is a more recur- Hanson 2004; Borrell 2005; Pemberton and Wheel- rent trend observed for other orchid bees’ commu- er 2006;López-Uribeetal.2008). One consequence nities (e.g., Roubik 1993; Otero and Sallenave 2003, of the males’ attraction to scents is that euglossine Vilhena et al. 2017).Wealsosampledinboththe bee abundance and diversity can be sampled using wet and dry seasons, as seasonality can affect orchid chemical baits that attract male bees (e.g., Ackerman bee abundance and diversity (Ackerman 1983; Pear- 1983; Pearson and Dressler 1985; Roubik and son and Dressler 1985; Ramírez et al. 2015; Rocha- Ackerman 1987; Powell and Powell 1987; Filho and Garófalo 2014). We predicted that abun- Oliveira and Campos 1995; Peruquetti et al. 1999; dance and species richness would be higher in the Roubik 2001, 2004; Nemésio 2013; Nemésio et al. dry than in the wet season, based off previous stud- 2015; Ramírez et al. 2015). ies in central Panamá (Ackerman 1983; Roubik Despite the utility of scent baiting for population 2001). Because Darién National Park is a primary monitoring of euglossine bees, most studies of forest protected from anthropogenic disturbances, community ecology only collect data for a single we predicted population stability over the 5 years season or across seasons for a single year (e.g., of our study. This is the first long-term study of Ackerman 1983;PowellandPowell1987; euglossines in Parque Nacional Darién (PND) to Oliveira and Campos 1995; Ramírez et al. 2015; sample both wet and dry seasons and canopy and Botsch et al. 2017). There are few studies of popu- understory, and one of the few long-term studies of lation dynamics and community composition over euglossine populations anywhere. multiple years. Roubik (2001) presents data from 21 years of monitoring the euglossine bee fauna of 2. MATERIALS AND METHODS central Panamá (Roubik 2001), and Nemésio et al. (2015) monitored euglossine bees over 14 years in 2.1. Study site an urban remnant of Atlantic forest in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. The studies of Roubik (2001) PND is a world heritage site (UNESCO 1981) and Nemésio et al. (2015) show remarkable stability and the largest park in Panamá (5790 km2), covering in abundance and community composition over the 90% of the Panamá-Colombia border. We conduct- long term, despite fluctuations in population at both ed this study at Rancho Frio Biological Station the species and community level from year to year. (8.017834, − 77.732739), which is in a semi- 1040 Á. Vega-Hildago et al. deciduous lowland forest with a pronounced dry Panamá (MIUP), where we identified species fol- season from December to April (Santos-Murgas lowing the key of Roubik and Hanson (2004). et al. 2018). Weather data are not available for Rancho Frio, 2.3. Alpha and beta diversity analysis but we were able to access rainfall data from the Empresa de Transmisión Eléctrica (ETESA) We calculated alpha diversity indices for each weather station at Camoganti, 20 km NW of Ran- stratum (canopy and understory): richness, abun- choFrio(http://www.hidromet.com.pa/clima_ dance, Simpson diversity (1-D), Shannon diversity historicos.php).