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Hymenoptera: Megachilidae) J IL •i Biology and Management Potential for Three Orchard Bee Species (Hymenopte ra: Megachilidae): Osmia ribifloris Cockerell, 0. lignaria (Say) and 0. chalj'hea Smith with Emphasis on the Former B.J. Sampson', J.H. Cane 2 . G.T. Kirker', S.J. Stringer', J.M. Spiers' USDA-ARS Thad Cochran Southern Horticultural Laboratory P.O. Box 287, Poplarville. Mississippi 39470 USA 2 USDA-ARS Bee Biology Lab and Department of Biology Utah State University. Logan, Utah 84322-5310 USA Kewords: rabbiteyc blueberry. southern highbush blueberry, insect development, fruit pollination, sex ratio. pollinator inbreeding Abstract What follows is comprehensive information on the biology and techniques for propagating select species of orchard bees for blueberry pollination, especially Osinia ribj/loris Cockerell. Before we introduce 0. ribifloris or any other bee species to a blueberry t'arin commerciall y, we must rear enough adults for field-scale release, design cheaper, lightweight nesting materials and increase grower awareness of the bee's value. We hope that by delivering reproductively viable bees onto farms, berry producers will gain a secondar y source of revenue from selling surplus Osmia cocoons and nesting supplies. The results we present here represent 14 years of rearing orchard bees in the Deep South (Alabama andMississippi), and should apply to blueberry growing regions west of the Mississippi River where one of the bee species, Osinia i'ihifloris, is endemic (e.g., Texas, California and Oregon). We also discuss some ecological, physiological and genetic costs of keeping a small pollinator population in captivit y for almost a decade. INTRODUCTION Weaker honey bee hives, hibernating nati\ e bees, blustery weather, and blossom bli ghts can make southern blueberry farms stand eerily silent when they Should hum with pollinator activity in late winter (January through March). Without bees to remove nectar under cooler conditions, Boir i/s and Colletoti'échum diseases further depress fruit set and yield (Smith. 1998: Ngugi and Scherin. 2006: Sampson. personal observation). About one native bee and four to five honey bees, or some combination of the two, per 1000 open blueberry flowers generates the loudest hum in a field. Filly to sixty days later. 70-80% of these blooms set marketable berries (Cane, 1997: Cane and Pa yne. 1993: Sampson and Spiers, 2002: Sampson et al.. 2004h). Below this 5-6 bee threshold, fruit set losses become more frequent, especially in large 10-100 ha fields where set drops 50-70 percentage points as bee density falls below 0.5 bees per 1,000 blooms (Danka and Sampson, unpublished data). With little or no pollination from wild pollinators, each hectare of blueberry would need -600-1200 manageable bees (Sampson et al.. 2004b). To supplement blueberry pollination by wild native bees and hone y bees, we explore ways to conserve or mass-rear species of Osmia, exotic and native. CANDIDATE Osmia SPECIES: NOT ALL POLLINATORS ARE EQUAL! Compared with honey bees or bumble bees, non-beekeepers will find raising solitary bees easier and safer. In most cases, farmers grow a specific crop, which certain species of solitary bees recognize as their principal floral host. Whether exotic. e.g. Osinia cornifrons Radoszkowski. or native. e.g. 0. Iignaiwi /71'opmqua Say, orchard bees have profitabl y pollinated such major fruit crops as apples. almonds and cherries in the United States for -IS years. Wild 0. alrit'cnhris Cresson in the Northeast show promise as Proc. IXth IS on Vaccitfinin 549 Fits.: K.E. Hummer ci at. Ada I-tort. Stt). 1S1-IS 2009 pollinators of blueberry and cranberry. Another species. 0. rib//loris Cockerell (Fins. lA- G) is native to the western United States where it nests in natural cavities of stumps or dilapidated buildings. Cage studies show 0. rib//loris and the South's premier blueberry pollinator Habropoda lahoriosa (F.) set ample fruit loads between 50-75% after their first visit to flowers of rahhiteye blueberry Vaccinium ashei Reade (syn. V virgo/am Ait.) and southern highbush blueberry ( V. corvmbosu,n L. x V. (Iarrowii Camp: Sampson and Cane. 2000: Sampson et al., 2004h). Two subspecies of 0. ribi/loris occur west of the Mississippi River. Easternmost populations of the first subspecies o. r. rib//loris occur in central Texas where they feed from flowering trees of Dmospvm'os, Rosa, Cercis, Sophora, and Berberis (Cripps and Rust, 1985: Rust, 1986). The western subspecies of 0. r. hieder,nannii occurs from California to Oregon and Arizona to Utah, where it prefers as floral hosts shrubs of Arctoslaphrlos, Berheris and iviahonia. Wherever we find Manzanita or Berberis bushes at dry upland sites, we trap-nest Osmnia in hollow reeds or paper straws, then ship dormant cocoons eastward for evaluation as pollinators of Gulf Coast blueberries (Sampson et al.. 995: Sampson and Cane 2000). Most manageable species ol0smia often adopt as nests narrow cylindrical cavities drilled into lumber or other fiber-based media (trap-nests). By setting up additional trap- nesting stations at II coastal farms between Texas and Alabama we discovered two native orchard bees that have management potential: 0. lignaria hnaria Say and 0. cha/vhea Smith (Mitchell, 1962: Torehio, 1990: Javorek et al.. 2002; Sampson. personal observation 2006). A mud-loving orchard bee 0. lignaria produces viable progeny when confined on blueberry (Dogteroni, 1999: Sampson. unpublished data 2007). However, 0. lig;maria's preferred diet is pollen of almond, cherry and apple. When using blueberry pollen, each captive female 0. 1/guano lays about nine eggs, scattering her clutch by laying two or fewer eggs per straw - usually males. Leaf plugs as well as tubes stuffed with brood typify those 0. rho/thea nest blocks that we placed in blueberry fields. Brood provisions, however, could not have been blueberry, as captive female 0. cha/vhca avoid gathering pollen from blueberry flowers, producing in two weeks zero nest cells. This makes sense, as 0. cha/vbea and its western relatives prefer as floral hosts, thistles (Asteraceae) and California lilacs (Rhamnaceae). thus making this species a more promising pollinator of such crops as sunflowers and jujubes. The most promising species of orchard bee for pollinating blueberry is 0. rib//loris. Females are cold hardy and capable of fora ging 13 h each day at temperatures as cool as 9°C. Even when experiencing a climate very different from their own in Mississippi, female 0. rib//loris from distant populations or different subspecies mated freely with males from either subspecies and after nesting. 80% of their nest straws contained —5 male and 3 female nest cells. Where fimale 0. nih//lom'i.s come from. not where their mates come from, affected brood productivity. Nests of Texas 0. n. ci hi/loris or those they co-founded with California and Utah bees contained more nest cells and greater biomass as well as more female cocoons. On an exclusive diet of blueberry pollen. female 0. rib//loris were 9% more likely to survive winter than their brothers were and 8% more likely to survive than 0. lignania were (Sampson. unpublished data). 75% of flowers a female 0. rib//loris visits once will set seedy blueberry fruits. They never rob flowers for nectar like carpenter bees or honeybees. Instead, the y remove pollen from flowers by shaking anthers with their feet. and for every minute that female bees forage. five or six flowers set marketable berries (Cane, 1997; Sampson et al.. 2004a, 2004b). WINTERING DORMANT Osmia ribifloric It takes —10 days after removal from winter chill before female 0. rib//loris are ready to pollinate blueberries. We can hasten 0. rib//loris emergence and give females more foraging days by warming or cooling cocoons until a perfect overlap isachieved between pollinator nesting and crop flowering. If all goes well, in three months, 0. rib//loris broods will develop from eg gs to adults and then overwinter in tough silken cocoons (Fig. IF). Because larval Osmnia deplete fat bodies faster at higher summer 550 OF temperatures in the South (25-30'C), we must slow their metabolic activity to prevent winter starvation by promptly chilling cocooned adults at --6°C (43°F) for 90-120 days after October 31 (Fig. IG). Thereafter, dormant cocoons can he packaged in vials surrounded by leak-proof ice packs and shipped by mail. Populations of 0. rihi/loris raised in the South emerge from late January to early March, while northern populations emerge from April to May (Kromhien. 1967; Stubbs et al.. 1994). In some years, one in live adult bees forego emergence altogether when premature chilling stops them from pupating the first year, forcing them into premature larval dormancy. Next spring, larvae will resume pupal development (Bosch and Kemp, 2003, 2004; Sampson et al., 2004b). Osinia riliffloris NESTING BEHAVIOR Once an 0. rib/floris female has chosen a nest cavity, she starts collecting waxy leaf tissue. When this pulpy leaf tissue dries into hard leaf disks, females press together two or more disks to make nest cells or entrance plugs that quarantine brood from each other as well as from diseases and parasites. After completing a cell partition and before laying an egg, a female will make about 15 to 20 pollen trips and visit —1000 blueberry blooms to amass a food ball of -1.5 million pollen tetrads (Sanipson et al.. 1995: Sampson et al.. 2004b). As soon as an egg hatches 24 hours later, the young larva will slowly consume its moist food ball until ready to pupate 10 to 12 weeks later. Although captive 0. rib//loris nest gregariously in wooden shelters in Poplarville, Mississippi, and Auburn, Alabama (Figs. 113-E), free-flying populations newly introduced to southern highhush blueberries near Medford, Oregon, seem to have a strong instinct to leave release sites (Cane, unpublished data).
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