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19 December 2017 Pollen Foraging Differences Among Three Managed Pollinators in the Highbush Blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum) Agroecosystem
Kyle Bobiwash, Yonathan Uriel, Elizabeth Elle
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Abstract

Highbush blueberry, Vaccinium corymbosum (Gray), production in British Columbia is dependent upon insect pollination for fruit yield with particular cultivars demonstrating low yields due to poor pollination. New managed species of pollinators are being developed to provide farmers with managed pollinator options beyond Apis mellifera (Linnaeus). Pollinators in highbush blueberry agricultural systems encounter a variety of nontarget floral resources that may affect the pollination received by the crop. Our study analyzed the differences in pollen foraging of honey bees and two species of managed bumblebees across nine farm sites. Corbicular pollen loads from pollen foraging workers were removed and identified to the lowest taxonomic level possible. Of the three managed pollinators, the corbicular pollen loads of Bombus huntii (Greene) contained the most blueberry pollen (52.1%), three times as much as the two other managed bee species. Fifteen morphotypes of pollen were identified from all foraging workers with Rosaceae being the most frequently gathered overall pollen type (n = 74). The noncrop pollen identified in our samples derived from plant species not common as weedy species in the agroecosystem suggesting that floral resource diversity outside of the farm boundaries is important to pollinators. The three managed species in our blueberry fields utilized floral resources differentially underscoring the importance of pollinator species' characteristics and large-scale floral resource landscape in developing new managed pollinators and pollination strategies.

© The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.
Kyle Bobiwash, Yonathan Uriel, and Elizabeth Elle "Pollen Foraging Differences Among Three Managed Pollinators in the Highbush Blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum) Agroecosystem," Journal of Economic Entomology 111(1), 26-32, (19 December 2017). https://doi.org/10.1093/jee/tox344
Received: 29 August 2017; Accepted: 17 November 2017; Published: 19 December 2017
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KEYWORDS
agricultural entomology
agriculture
behavior
berry crop insect
ecology
pollination
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