Got Pumpkin Pie? Thank a Bee! Would Pumpkin Pie Be As Plentiful Without the Diligent Efforts of Pumpkin-Pollinating Bees? Perhaps Not

A Horticulture Information article from the Wisconsin Master Gardener website, posted 31 Oct 2014

Got Pumpkin Pie? Thank a Bee! Would pumpkin pie be as plentiful without the diligent efforts of pumpkin-pollinating bees? Perhaps not.

USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) entomologist James Cane and his colleagues are discovering more about America’s native bees that pollinate pumpkins, other squashes, and gourds. Most of these bees are members of the genus Peponapis or the genus Xenoglossa, according to Cane. He’s based at the agency’s Pollinating Insects Biology, Management and Systematics Research Unit in Logan, Utah. Pumpkin pie and various squashes. USDA image D260-1. Investigations such as those that Cane leads provide new details about the extent to which wild bees can help with pollination. Such help is especially needed in view of the ongoing problems faced by the nation’s premier pollinator, the European honey bee, Apis mellifera. Honey bees’ current troubles include the puzzling phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder.

Cane has shown, for the ﬁ rst time, that male Peponapis pruinosa play a surprisingly signiﬁ cant role in pollinating the blossoms of yellow summer squash. In the past, less than 10 percent of pollination has been attributed to male bees.

With both male and female bees on the job, fewer bees overall would be needed, according to Cane. That’s a plus for growers and beekeepers because it With tongue extended, a female Peponapis suggests that increasingly scarce, bee sips nectar from a yellow squash ﬂ ower. in-demand hives of honey bees USDA image D1275-1. could be freed up for work elsewhere.

Simple lust may explain the male squash bee’s role in pollinating blooms. Unlike male bees that mainly hunt for females at nest sites, P. pruinosa males Honeybees inside a seek their mates at ﬂ owers. As they ﬂ y from one blossom to the next, the bees squash blossom. inadvertently carry grains of pollen—trapped in tiny hairs on their bodies— with them, thus helping ensure that plants have the needed pollen.

– Repost of a November 2008 article by Marcia Wood at www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2008/081118.htm

Additional Information:

Read more about this research in the November/December 2008 issue of Agricultural Research magazine at www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/nov08/bees1108.htm