Natural history and maternal investment of Ceratina cucurbitina, the most common European small carpenter bee, in different European regions

Abstract

Many organisms are known to have wide distribution ranges, which cover large variability of ecological conditions. Therefore, natural history traits can differ throughout the distributional range, and, thus, studies on the natural history of traits from multiple areas of a single species are highly valuable. Ceratina cucurbitina is the most common small carpenter bee in Europe. We examined the social status of nests and maternal investment in four European locations: Czech Republic, Italy, Albania, and Crete. This species is solitary in all studied locations. We found evidence for nest reuse and founding of multiple nests per year; however, this behavior is relatively uncommon. The average number of brood cells provisioned was 8.75; however, this value was significantly lower in Crete than in other regions. Sex of offspring was related to brood cell position; the inner brood cells tended to be female-biased and outer brood cells male-biased. Despite that, we did not find evidence for the typical dwarf eldest daughter pattern of maternal investment in most studied regions. Generally, conditions for C. cucurbitina reproduction seem to be better in the center of the range (Italy, Albania) than on the margins (Czech Republic, Crete). A higher number of brood cell provisioned and/or larger size of offspring was found in central regions than in marginal regions.

Keywords:

• Nesting biology
• maternal care
• secondary solitude
• phenology
• small carpenter bee
• Ceratina cucurbitina

Acknowledgments

We thank all people, who help us with field experiments: Vít Bureš, Kateřina Černá, Klára Daňková, Tereza Fraňková, Tomáš Gybas, Antonín Hlaváček, Benedikt Janda, Lukáš Janošík, Anna Krygielová, Karel Kodejš, Lenka Macháčková, Eva Matoušková, Šárka Mikátová, Blanka Mikátová, Jitka Straková, Karel Tuček, Karel Plavec, Vít Procházka, Kateřina Votýpková. We are grateful to office of Podyjí National park for a research permit and friendliness to the researchers. We also thank Roman Catholic priest Marian Husek for accommodation in a rectory in Havraníky village.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Supplementary material

Supplementary content is available via the ‘Supplementary’ tab on the article’s online page (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00218839.2020.1828235).

Additional information

Funding

The Grant Agency of Charles University (Grant GAUK 764119/2019) and the Specific University Research project Integrative Animal Biology (Grant SVV 260571/2020) supported this research.