new Osmia leaf pulp study

[James Cane]

Hi folks- here is a new publication of our's reporting extensive choice experiments with an Osmia species that builds with leaf pulp, basically Italian pesto minus the oil. I can send the pdf for any of you who can't access content of the Biol J of the Linn Soc. I've rarely enjoyed such cooperation from a behavioral study with nesting bees.

"Foliar traits, taxonomic preferences, and foraging effort by Osmia bruneri bees acquiring leaf pulp for nest construction (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae)"

https://academic.oup.com/biolinnean/article/146/4/blaf092/8369027?searchresult=1

For those of you in the Southern Hemisphere who have no chance to see leaf pulping, you can view associated video clips of Osmia bruneri pulping leaves by searching in the ms for "figshare"

Obviously, if you live in the northern hemisphere, you are welcome to view it too!

cheers, jim

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James H. Cane

Native bee and pollination ecologist

Emeritus USDA-ARS Bee Lab, Logan, Utah

owner -  WildBeecology

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jim-Cane

https://www.zotero.org/jimbee

https://sites.google.com/view/jimcanewildbeecology/home

"Knowledge and comprehension are the joy and justification of humanity"
 Alexander von Humboldt

[Kit Prendergast]

Thanks James!

Another reason why I don't like the common names where people say there are 'leaf cutter bees' and 'resin bees' - there are Megachile that do some many other things re nesting (and it's only the females anyway).

We do however have a number Megachilidae that use leaf pulp for their nests here in the Southern Hemisphere- Megachile erythropyga to some extent, but especially Megachile aurifrons, the most common bee hotel users, use this form of nest closure. I think M. fabricator does too - it puts leaf discs in the back of the nest, but then leaf pulp for the 'door'. However , we need to do studies like yours to find out what they use!

Here's a little video I took on Friday of a bee hotel we installed at a restoration site - you can see many pulp plugs :)

https://www.instagram.com/p/DR6EqXLE96L/?hl=en

p.s. I need to upload it but I recently did a survey and say M. fabricator pulling bits of burnt back off a tree, presumably for her nest !

Best,

Kit

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Dr Kit Prendergast

Native bee scientist, conservation biologist and zoologist

University of Southern QLD Postdoctoral Researcher (Pollination Ecology)

Adjunct Curtin University and Forrest Scholar Alumni

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