Notes on the nesting ecology of the Megachile bees from North India

Abstract

Information on plants providing provisions (nectar and/or pollen) and nesting material for Megachile bees is fundamental for their conservation and habitat management to obtain optimal pollination services. Considering insufficient work reporting on these aspects in north India, studies were carried out to investigate the interactions between the plant species and the Megachile bees, through observing the adults foraging on the flowers and leaf-cutting activity on the leaves of plant species during regular visits. Observations on the leafcutter bees, viz. Megachile (Amegachile) bicolor Fabricius, Megachile (Eutricharaea) chlorigaster Cameron, Megachile (Aethomegachile) conjuncta Smith, Megachile (Callomegachile) relata Smith and Megachile (Eutricharaea) studiosa Bingham and five resin/mason bees - Megachile (Callomegachile) cephalotes Smith, Megachile (Callomegachile) disjuncta Fabricius, Megachile (subgenus - uncertain) inepta Cameron, Megachile (Pseudomegachile) lanata Fabricius and Megachile (Callomegachile) umbripennis Smith revealed that they interacted with 30 plant species for nectar/pollen and 19 plant species for leaf pieces from 17 plant families. The bees preferred the plants from the family Leguminosae for both provision and leaf pieces. Multiple interactions by different bee species were recorded for floral plants; however, the leafcutter bees had a distinctive choice in their leaf preferences while M. chlorigaster exhibited unusual behavior in using leaf types to build a nest. Megachile bicolor, M. disjuncta and M. cephalotes exhibited a wider range of plant interactions. Bee-plant interactions and their implications have been discussed. This study provides new information on the ecological requirements for nesting of Megachile bees which would be helpful in habitat management and developing effective tools for managed pollination.

Keywords:

• Bee-plant interactions
• Megachile bicolor
• M. cephalotes
• M. conjuncta
• M. disjuncta
• M. lanata
• M. relata
• M. studiosa

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Dr. D. S. Rawat, Associate Professor, and Plant taxonomist Department of Biological Sciences, College of Basic Sciences and Humanities, GBPUA & T, Pantnagar for identification of the plant species. We also thank anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplementary Tables are available via the ‘Supplementary’ tab on the article's online page (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10.1080/00218839.2020.1774151).