More than just honey: Solitary bees and pollination in the South African winter rainfall area by Michael Kuhlmann in Veld & Flora 96(3), pp. 120-121, September 2010.
More than just honey: Solitary bees and pollination in the South African winter rainfall area by Michael Kuhlmann in Veld & Flora 96(3), pp. 120-121, September 2010.
More than just honey: Solitary bees and pollination in the South African winter rainfall area by Michael Kuhlmann in Veld & Flora 96(3), pp. 120-121, September 2010.
these astonishing little structures. Pollen analyses of nest provisions and female scopal pollen loads (the scopa consists of specially adapted hairs on the females ventral side of the abdomen which transport pollen into the bees nest) carried out by Kim Timmermann showed that the Resin Bee collects pollen exclusively from flowers of the daisy family (Asteraceae). Pollen specialization (oligolecty) is common among solitary bees and can lead to co-evolution between plants and their pollinators. This is presumably the case in the other bee species, the Oil-collecting Bee and their long-spurred, oil-secreting host plants of the genus Diascia. There are 24 Rediviva species that are all endemic to South Africa. The females of some of the species have greatly elongated forelegs with their tarsi densely covered with velvet like hairs. These hairs efficiently absorb the oil secreted at the tips of the long spurs of the Diascia flowers. Floral oil is mixed with pollen instead of nectar and used to provision the nest cell to nourish the larva. However, it might also be used to line nest cells with a thin waterproof layer like some South American oil-collecting bees do to protect the developing larva and the provision from moulding. The elongate forelegs that can be as long, or even longer than the body are a unique feature of some Rediviva species, like R. macgregori. For a species in the Drakensberg, it has been shown that length of Diascia floral spurs and Rediviva forelegs varied between populations but was always correlated indicating a co- evolutionary process. These are only two examples illustrating the striking diversity of adaptations bees have developed in the South African winter rainfall area, making it a unique laboratory where evolutionary processes can be studied under natural conditions. Climate change, intensified farming and landscape fragmentation have a large impact on the entire ecosystem and might fundamentally change it before we are able to fully understand its origin and the processes that ultimately shaped it. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I thank the Northern Cape Department of Tourism, Environment and Conservation and the Western Cape Nature Conservation Board for permission to collect specimens for research. I am deeply indebted to the late Neil MacGregor and his wife Neva for their exceptional hospitality, their interest in and the constant support of my bee and pollination research on their former property. I dedicate this article to the memory of Neil. GET CONNECTED Michael Kuhlmann is research entomologist at the Department of Entomology of The Natural History Museum in London. He has a special interest is in sub- Saharan African solitary bee taxonomy, systematics, ecology and biogeography as well as global diversity patterns and plant-pollinator interactions as a driving force in evolution and speciation. Contact him at m.kuhlmann@nhm.ac.uk. ABOVE: Female Oil-collecting Bee (Rediviva macgregori) with the right elongate foreleg stretched out. Photo: NHM. RIGHT: The author collecting bees near Nieuwoudtville. Photo: Kim Timmermann. BELOW: The long-spurred, oil-secreting annual Diascia floribunda is one of the host plants of the Oil-collecting Bee (Rediviva macgregori). Photo: Michael Kuhlmann. SEPTEMBER 2010 | VELD&FLORA 121